domingo, novembro 8

Está quase...

Já Está!

1.º - A Câmara dos representantes aprovou a regra que rege a discussão da legislação sobre cuidados de saúde por uma votação de 242 a 192, sugerindo, mas não garantindo que os democratas terão o número suficiente de votos para fazer aprovar a nova legislação mais tarde, ainda este sábado.link
Quinze Democratas juntaram-se aos 177 republicanos da oposição e um democrata não votou .

2.º - Depois de um longo debate de doze horas, que terminou às 04:15 horas de Lisboa (acompanhámos até às 02:00 horas), a Câmara dos Representantes, aprovou a proposta de reforma
link que prevê o alargamento da cobertura de cuidados a quase toda a população, por uma estreitíssima margem de cinco votos (220 votos contra 215). link
De notar que 39 democratas votaram ao lado dos republicanos (176+39=215).
link link

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3 Comments:

Blogger e-pá! said...

Hoje, na 1ª. página, o NYT abre com o seguinte cabeçalho:
"SWEEPING HEALTH CARE PLAN PASSES HOUSE" link

Barak Obbama necessitava desta vitória política e milhões de americanos - sem qualquer plano de seguro - beneficiarão desta reforma que abre a cobertura sanitária aos seus cidadãos (46 milhões de americanos, neste momento...).
Obama deslocou-se, pessoalmente, à Câmara de Representantes onde anunciou estar "absolutamente confiante" de que a Câmara Alta aprovará o seu plano de sàude.
Espera promulgar o seu projecto de Lei até ao "fim do ano"...

Uma verdadeira batalha pela Saúde contra o poderoso status quo de Washington.

No espaço de 1 ano, Obama revelou ser um dos presidentes mais audaciosos do momento, mas também um homem cauteloso (...) e, finalmente, convencional, no sentido político do termo. link

Mas, Obama, não pode baixar a guarda.
A situação da Saúde é uma grande vitória para o progresso da política americana, mas - para o Mundo - existe uma longa e complexa lista do "não-realizado" e, cujo olhar do Planeta continua voltado para os States:
Iraque, Afeganistão, Irão, Palestina, mudanças ecológicas, alterações climáticas, etc.

Todavia, para reforçar este vitorioso passo não posso deixar de subscrever as palavras de Nancy Pelosi, dirigindo-se aos americanos:
"Este projecto de Lei dá-vos - a vocês e ao vosso médico, o controlo da vossa saúde, as companhias de seguros não se interporão no meio do caminho..."

Pesadas responsabilidades para todos... mas vale bem uma taça de champanhe!

9:01 da manhã  
Blogger tambemquero said...

Health-care reform passed the House, quite literally, at the eleventh hour. It passed with a slim, two-vote margin. But it passed. That is more than has ever happened before. More than Truman or Nixon or Carter or Clinton managed. More than Rayburn or O'Neill or Gingrich managed. It is success, at least for this stage in the process. It is history, even, though it's hard to sense the importance of the moment when you watch members of Congress spend the day squabbling over the true meaning of the word freedom.

But it was also sobering. Harry Reid's job will be harder. Health-care reform passed the House with 50.5 percent of the vote. It will need 60 percent in the Senate. Pelosi had the luxury of losing 40 Democrats. When it comes to beating the filibuster, Reid probably won't be able to lose even one.

EK

10:43 da manhã  
Blogger DrFeelGood said...

Our health care system is truly titanic, in more than one sense of the word.

Not only is it huge, but it's also growing at unsustainable rates that undermine our health care security and fiscal stability - and threaten to sink the system under its own weight.

When the health care debate began in earnest just after the November 2008 election, it was supposed to be about reform moving the nation toward universal coverage in a system that could be sustained in terms of costs. We could no longer "kick this can down the road."

In the spring, it became clear there was neither the consensus on what to do about health costs or the political will to try to tackle them. That is when the health care reform effort shifted to a health insurance reform effort.

In one bit of good news, liberals have shown as much concern as conservatives about bringing costs under control, though their preferred solutions are obviously far different. Liberals pointed to the need for a robust public plan option, saying it was the key to cost containment.

But the House Democratic leadership ended up gutting the pubic option; now it's hardly more muscular than the weakling co-ops in the Senate Finance Committee bill. As a result, neither fiscal conservatives nor liberals are left with much reason to believe the House-passed bill has much chance of bending any cost curves.

The House bill also fails to provide affordable health insurance to the middle class.

Under the legislation, an uninsured family of three earning $54,930 a year would be expected to pay $5,493 each year for their health insurance plan from the new insurance exchange-net of the government subsidies the bill would provide. A family making $73,240 a year would be expected to pay $8,789 for their health insurance. These costs are not affordable for these families.

If these families didn't pay these premiums, they would be subject to fines equal to 2.5% of their income--$1,373 annually in the case of the family making $54,930.

The bizarre result is an incentive for families to skip buying coverage, and pay a fine that is only a small percentage of their premium costs. They'll still be able to get insurance on demand from the exchanges should they have a big medical problem. That's like being able to buy insurance on your house after it burns down. This kind of system will not make insurance costs lower.

Some supporters of the House bill say that, while the legislation doesn't tackle health care costs, it's still important to reduce the number of uninsured. Their reasoning goes: The pressure of adding 30 million more people to the system, coupled with the unsustainable cost trends, will eventually force Washington to deal with real health care reform.

That strikes me as about the same as rounding up lots more people to board the Titanic in the hope that it will sink even faster.

RL

1:56 da tarde  

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