Health Care Reform Passes
The Miami Herald reported this past weekend that the health care reform bill that was debated in Congress passed in the House by a narrow margin of 220-215.
In the Senate, legislation is being finalized, but has yet to be made public. Therefore, certain details of the Senate version of the Health Care Reform bill are unknown.
Below is a brief comparison of the health care bills before both chambers of Congress:
The House version
The Affordable Health Care for America Act (AHCAA):
The AHCAA would cover about 96% of legal residents under 65 years of age including undocumented immigrants. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that cost of expanding insurance coverage for the next 10 years is over $1.055 trillion.
The Senate version
The Affordable Health Choices Act (AHCA):
The AHCA would cover an estimated 94 percent of Americans, however, undocumented immigrants would not be covered. The Senate estimated that the costs to implement health care reform would be $900 billion over the next 10 years.
Health Care reform has been long overdue. However, as more and more people need coverage including immigrants, the government must consider that both legal and illegal immigrants will also need coverage. Therefore, a consensus must be reached to determine how best to deal with the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, both to legalize them and to medically insure them.
