Published 9 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4658
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4658

News

Obama praises House of Representatives for passing health reform bill

Janice Hopkins Tanne

1 New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The 435 member US House of Representatives passed a health reform bill by a narrow margin of 220 to 215 votes late on Saturday 7 November.

The bill would provide health insurance for about 36 million of the 46 million currently uninsured Americans. It is predicted to cost $1100bn (£655bn; {euro}735bn) over the next decade but also to reduce the national deficit by $104bn over the same period.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act will be funded by a tax surcharge on single US citizens who earn more than $500 000 a year and on families who earn more than $1m; by a penalty on people and companies who do not buy or provide health insurance; and by a reduction in Medicare payments to healthcare providers.

The bill was supported by the American Medical Association and AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), which represents people aged over . . . [Full text of this article]


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