FOR HALF an hour yesterday morning, the Democrats who passed the first comprehensive healthcare Bill in US history indulged in sheer, unadulterated joy. Their presence in the East Room of the White House was, as President Barack Obama said, “remarkable and improbable”.
As they waited for the president, the members of Congress acted like students at a graduation, or carnival revellers. In the elegant cream and gold reception room with its heavy chandeliers they laughed and photographed each other.
The oil portrait of Teddy Roosevelt, the first US president to advocate universal healthcare, 100 years ago, watched from the back.
When the great wooden doors finally opened and Mr Obama appeared down the central corridor of the White House, the crowd cheered, whistled and applauded. “You’ve made history,” Vice-president Joe Biden said, addressing the president. “Your fierce advocacy, the clarity of purpose that you showed, your perseverance . . . these are the reasons why we’re assembled in this room . . . today.
“But for those attributes we would not be here . . . Mr President, you’re the guy that made it happen.” As the vice-president spoke, Mr Obama surveyed the room, winking at friends and supporters. Among the crowd were lawmakers he had had to court and cajole, whose arms he’d had to twist to get a yes vote. Nineteen standing ovations in less than 30 minutes. Everyone else was smiling, but Mr Obama was solemn for long moments, his head bowed, as if in humility.
“You’ve done what generations of not just ordinary, but great men and women, have attempted to do,” Mr Biden continued.
“But Mr President, they fell short. You have turned . . . the right of every American to have access to decent healthcare into reality for the first time in American history.” When the president’s turn came to speak, he said “thank you” 11 times before the crowd grew quiet. “Today, after almost a century of trying . . . real insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America,” Mr Obama said. “The Bill I’m signing will set in motion reforms that generations of Americans have fought for, and marched for, and hungered to see.”
Mr Obama listed the immediate benefits of the law for children, the elderly, students and small businesses.
“That our generation is able to succeed in passing this reform is a testament to the persistence – and the character – of the American people,” he said. Members of Congress had “taken their lumps during this difficult debate”.
“Yes we did!” one cried out.
“Today, I’m signing this reform Bill into law on behalf of my mother, who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days,” Mr Obama said, in one of the most moving moments of the ceremony.
He dedicated the signing to others too: Ryan Smith, Marcelas Owens, Natoma Canfield; ordinary Americans whose stories became part of American lore because Mr Obama recounted them during his crusade for healthcare.
He paid tribute to the late senator Ted Kennedy, whose widow Vicky, son Patrick and niece Caroline were present.
Then, with House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vicky Kennedy watching over his shoulder, and John Dingle, the elderly representative who has devoted his career to seeking healthcare legislation, beside him, Mr Obama sat at a small wooden table and with his left hand wrote slowly, changing pens with each letter, so the pens could be given and treasured and handed down as the one that signed the landmark healthcare Bill into law.
HEALTH CHALLENGE 13 STATES FILE LAWSUIT
THIRTEEN STATES have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare overhaul signed by US president Barack Obama, Bill McCollum, Florida’s attorney general, has said.
The states claim the legislation, signed yesterday, places a fiscal burden on their cash-strapped budgets with an expansion of state-run Medicaid.
The lawsuit seeks to bar enforcement of the healthcare legislation while the case proceeds in federal court in Pensacola, Florida. Joining Florida in the suit were Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.
A copy of the complaint was posted on the Florida attorney general’s website.
“The act represents an unprecedented encroachment on the liberty of individuals living in the plaintiffs’ respective states, by mandating that all citizens and legal residents of the United States have qualifying healthcare coverage or pay a tax penalty,” the states said in the lawsuit. - (Bloomberg)