Carl Hulse and Robert Pear, for The New York Times have it thus, tonight:
. . . .Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, lawmakers voted to approve a $1.1 trillion, 10-year plan that Democrats said could be their defining social policy achievement. . . .
Democrats say the measure — paid for through new fees and taxes, along with cuts in Medicare — would extend coverage to 36 million people now without insurance and would create a government health insurance program. It would end insurance company practices like not covering pre-existing conditions or dropping people when they become ill.
The successful vote came after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill just before noon Saturday to make a personal appeal for lawmakers to "answer the call of history" and support the bill. . . .
So, now it's on to the Senate,where -- at least many of us believe -- the bill can, and will, be improved. But this passage in the U.S. House already places President Obama's efforts well-beyond where the Clinton-Gore efforts at real health care reform faltered -- about 16 years ago.
I do think it is really going to happen -- and the package will be improved, in the Senate conference process. If you own health insurance stocks, I'd rethink that, in premarket trading Monday on the NASDAQ.
