Possible Vote On House Health Care Bill By Next Tuesday

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer hoping to finalize the last changes to the health care reform legislation very soon, so that the final vote on the bill could take place next Tuesday. The amount of time the bill is debated on the floor should be relatively short because it is unlikely that amendments will be allowed.

The primary reason that no amendments will be allowed has to do with the issue of abortion. Rep. Bart Stupak is threatening to offer a poison pill amendment that would severally restrict the ability of people to buy a private health insurance plan that covers abortion. His amendment would likely pass, but if it does, enough pro-choice Democrats would end up voting against the entire bill to prevent it from passing. Currently, the House leadership is working on a new compromise dealing with how insurance plans can and can’t sell policies that cover abortion on the new exchange. It is one of the last issues that needs to be resolved before the bill can be finalized and brought up for a vote.

The fact that a group of Democrats, refering to themselves as “pro-life,” are threatening to bring down a health care reform bill, one which could possibly save 45,000 lives a year, because it is not “pro-life” enough is some rich irony unfortunately lost on everyone in Washington.