Legislative Background
Recent Action on Health Care Reform
As a Democratic senator campaigning for the White House in 2008, Barack Obama advocated sweeping change in the Nation’s health care system and promised that reforms would be in place “by the end of my first term as president.” As President, in a February 4, 2009, address to a joint session of Congress, he said that health care reform “cannot wait another year.” Senate Action. On July 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved, 13 to 10, a health care reform bill that would require individuals to obtain insurance and employers to help cover the costs….
