Historic Health Care Reform Bill That Benefits Black Community Passes The House Via The Leadership Of America's First Black President

U.S. President Barack Obama
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-8)


Posted Sunday, November 8, 2009
(National News)

By Kathy Wray Coleman
(Editor of The Determiner Weekly and The Kathy Wray
Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network)

The first Black president of the United States of America made history late last night as the House adopted his health care reform initiative, passing the bill by a narrow margin with only one Republican supporting it and 39 Democrats voting in opposition.

“The yeas are 220 and the nays are 215,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-8), a California Democrat and the first woman to lead the House.

President Barack Obama, elected last year as the first African- American to lead the country, made a last minute pitch to Congress in support of the measure.

“I urge members of Congress to answer the call of history and vote yes to health issue reform,” he said.

Health care reform has been Obama's baby and he made that clear when he campaigned last year in Ohio for the Democratic Party's nomination for president, telling the Call and Post, a Cleveland weekly that targets the Black community, and Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, that affordable health care and access to it are necessary for a stable America.

"Just one more reason as to why this is a critical election, ”Obama told the Call and Post. “We have been long overdue in creating a health care system that works for all Americans.”

In an announcement shortly after the bill passed the House Obama thanked those voting for it and reminded Americans of his plight to include the underprivileged and the unemployed in his fight to make America better.

“Tonight in a historic vote," the president said. “The House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality affordable health care for all Americans.”

Benefits of the bill to the Black community include audits of all employers that self-insure, reductions in health care costs, a strong public health care option that gives poor people access to health care and a provision to achieve health equity by addressing disparities that disproportionately affect Black Americans. Additionally, the bill provides for the elimination of a current provision that allows insurance companies to reject applicants with preexisting medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Republicans whined that the bill, which now moves to the Senate for a vote, would take jobs and result in a government takeover of health care, a posture that Obama and most congressional Democrats say is nothing but a myth designed to scare Americans into supporting Republican led efforts to maintain the current health care initiative that some call racist and anti-poor people.

The Democrats enjoy a majority in both the House and Senate

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