House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said America's Affordable Health Choices Act, the healthcare reform bill announced Tuesday by the House, is geared toward the middle class and would lower costs to consumers and businesses.
The bill would be paid for, in part, by a surtax of as much as 5.4 percent on Americans with annual incomes above $350,000.
In a Tuesday press conference, Peloisi said the bill would allow Americans to keep their current plan or doctor if they so chose and provide better quality of care. It would put "doctors, not insurance companies back in charge," she said, and provide "stability and peace of mind that you cannot be denied care or coverage for a pre-existing condition."
"This is indeed a happy day, for today we are introducing historic and transformative legislation that will benefit all Americans," she said.
Pelosi called the House bill "a starting point" and said Congress will be working with President Barack Obama over the coming weeks to pass a bill. The Senate version, released earlier this month, has generated controversy over its estimated $1 trillion price tag and been opposed by Republicans and questioned by some fiscally conservative Democrats. The Senate is working out the kinks in its bill.
Congress has set a goal of Oct. 1 to pass a health reform package.
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) said the House Democrats' proposed $1.1 trillion healthcare overhaul, with its public health plan option, would raise costs, reduce choices and allow government bureaucrats to interfere in the patient-doctor relationship.
The bill will be considered by the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday.
Obama supports the House bill, saying the House has "engaged in unprecedented cooperation to produce a healthcare reform proposal that will lower costs, provide better care for patients and ensure fair treatment of consumers by the insurance industry."
Obama said the bill will root out waste and fraud and promote quality and accountability, with a savings of more than $500 billion to Medicare over 10 years.
Senior Fellow Judy Feder of the Center for American Progress Action Fund said the House bill would slow the growth of healthcare costs and assure affordable health coverage for all Americans.
"This bill demonstrates unprecedented cooperation across the three principal healthcare committees in the House of Representatives to produce a very strong proposal," she said. "At its core are mechanisms to move the healthcare delivery system away from rewarding volume and towards rewarding quality care that is provided efficiently."
Feder praised the bill's strategies to lower healthcare costs – reducing current overpayments, introducing incentives for coordinating care and preventing and managing chronic disease, and giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services authority for implementing successful payment and delivery innovations.
National Community Pharmacists Association Executive Vice President and CEO Bruce T. Roberts said the House proposal requires "additional, careful review," but was pleased the bill includes measures to pay pharmacies for generic medications dispensed to Medicaid patients.
Doctors for America applauded the bill.
"Doctors across the country have told us that our healthcare system must be fixed so we can take better care of our patients. We are pleased that the House included a public insurance option in their plan – an option that means choice and affordability for patients to access the care they need," said Vivek Murthy for Doctors for America. "Doctors on the front lines have pushed for payment structure changes so that they can focus on quality of patients' care, and this bill does a good job addressing that concern, as well."