WASHINGTON (WHTC) – The political hot potato that is health care reform is now in the US Senate’s lap.
By a four-vote margin, the US House on Thursday passed legislation that Republicans say will replace a “failed” Affordable Care Act, but many observers feel that it will be “dead on arrival” when it comes before the Upper Chamber. Congressman Bill Huizenga of Zeeland doesn’t believe that what he and his House colleagues did was an exercise in futility. “I believe that the Senate will find a bill that they can agree on at 51 votes,” he said in his weekly conversation on “WHTC Morning News” prior to the vote. “At that point, assuming that it is different than what we are passing, it will come back to the House and we’ll have to make a judgment call and a decision on whether that is the direction that we want to go.”
A big sticking point in this legislation involved a dispute over protections for pre-existing conditions. Congressman Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph), who had not backed this legislation because of this issue earlier this week, became a supporter after GOP leadership agreed to his proposed five-year, eight billion-dollar plan to offset higher premiums for those with pre-existing conditions. Huizenga said on WHTC that he disagreed with Upton’s objection, saying that the bill already had such protections. Both Upton and Huizenga voted for this legislation on Thursday.
