No Illinois Dems oppose health care reform measure

Suburban lawmakers in the U.S. House split strictly along party lines in a landmark vote on a major overhaul of America’s health care infrastructure late Saturday night.
Facing protests from both sides of the divisive proposal for months, U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington and U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Batavia ended up siding with their party in pushing the Democratic proposal across the finish line with 220 votes, just two votes more than needed. Also supporting the measure was U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat who has long backed government health coverage expansion.
Suburban Republicans stood firm against the plan, which will create a national insurance exchange with federal oversight, a government administered insurance option and a mandate for everyone to purchase coverage. The Republicans who stood with nearly the entire GOP House caucus in opposition included U.S. representatives Mark Kirk of Highland Park, who is also a Senate candidate, Judy Biggert of Hinsdale, Peter Roskam of Wheaton and Don Manzullo of the Rockford area.
Republicans have been railing against the signature domestic policy agenda item for President Barack Obama — who won a majority of support in the suburbs of Chicago — since the summer as they also sought to push their own plans that required less government intervention, but offered weaker insurance protections while also ensuring coverage for far fewer Americans.
The days leading up to House passage featured dramatic vote wrangling by Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Bean and Foster said their arms weren’t twisted and they were pleased with the final measure, on balance. However, the vote is sure to be a key issue in looming general election battles for both Democrats next year.
Foster said he believes constituents who now oppose the reform measures may come around despite hearing accusations it will gut Medicare funding, ration health care and send the national debt skyrocketing.
“They are going to see the things that are happening are good and not bad,” said Foster, a freshman from the far West suburban 14th District. “Then they are going to realize who is telling them the truth and who isn’t.”
In voting for the legislation, Bean and Foster pointed to provisions barring insurance practices that deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, kick the insured off the rolls when they are sick and cap payments for the critically ill. The proposal, they say, will also for the first time provide affordable coverage options for the tens of millions of uninsured.
As for Medicare, Bean and Foster say the measure will close a gap in prescription coverage, commonly called the ‘doughnut hole,’ over the next decade while not reducing any coverage for seniors.
The current measure raises taxes on individuals making more than $500,000 a year and couples taking in more than $1 million annually.
The House measure approved Saturday will not be the ultimate version of health care reform. A final version will come after the Senate passes its own legislation and then it is merged with the House measure for a vote in both chambers. That could take months, but Obama has said he wants legislation on his desk by the end of the year.
Bean and Foster said they don’t like every element of the massive proposal. But it gained their support as a major first step.
“I’ve always supported the president’s objective and the need for health care reform,” Bean said.
Foster said, “This is going to be a promise I am keeping to the people who have come to my office who are uninsurable, falling through the cracks in our health care system.”
Republicans, meanwhile, argued their counter proposal would have been better. It failed Saturday with 176 votes in support. Illinois Republican Tim Johnson, whose district covers downstate around the University of Illinois in Champaign, was the only GOP House member to oppose it.
Roskam said Democrats “missed an incredible opportunity” in rejecting the Republican counter proposal.
“Tonight’s vote is incredibly disappointing, though just the latest example that Democrats simply aren’t listening to Americans,” he blasted in a statement to the media following the late vote.
Kirk argued the Republican proposal, offered as a package by the House GOP leader in the waning days of debate on health care reform, was a sign his party was not simply an obstructionist.
“We showed the American people that we are not the party of no — we are the party of better,” he said in a statement.
Biggert said she voted ‘No’ because the Democratic proposal will “dramatically increase spending, slash Medicare, and drive families into a government-run system that few believe will lower costs or improve the quality of care.”
While 39 Democrats opposed their party’s proposal, none were from Illinois.
Illinois Democrats aside from those in the suburbs supporting the plan included representatives Philip Hare, Dan Lipinski, Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Michael Quigley, Danny Davis, Debbie Halvorson and Jerry Costello. Illinois GOP members opposing the proposal aside from those in the suburbs included downstate lawmakers Johnson, John Shimkus and Aaron Schock.
Geographically, the suburbs were splintered by lawmakers opposing and supporting the historic measure. Those living in DuPage County — aside from far western communities like West Chicago — along with residents on the southern edge of the Cook County panhandle and those in southeastern McHenry County and eastern Lake County have lawmakers who opposed the measure. Meanwhile, voters in Kane County, parts of northwestern Cook County and the central and western span of Lake County have lawmakers who supported it.