Steps To Win
Winning quality, affordable health care for all is about more than having the right principles. You need a plan to win. Here's how Health Care for America Now is going to do it, step by step.
The Lay of the Land
First, let's take a look at the structure of Congress. There are specific committees in both the House and the Senate that have jurisdiction over health care reform, and therefore will play a big role in the process. The members of these committees - their Democratic chairs, the ranking Republican members, and general membership - will all be key players. This explains our focus - both now and in the future - on these Members of Congress.
Mouse over the graphic below to view the members of each of the primary committees of jurisdiction in both the House and the Senate, as well as an outline of the basic process by which a health care bill may become law. (Note: Committee assignments have not been finalized for the 111th Congress, so some of the information below will change.)
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(Print a version of this chart for easy reference)
Steps To Win
Broadly speaking, the legislative process moves in identifiable steps. Though the specifics, timing, and sequencing will change (such as skipping a subcommittee or full committee), we know generally what is going to happen and what we will need to do at each step to make health care reform a reality. The key at this point is to prepare for possible legislative scenarios rather than be too focused on predicting what route the legislation will ultimately move through.
Below is a chart showing where we are in the process (highlighted in red), where we've been, and where we are going. Some of these steps may ultimately overlap or the House or Senate may move through the process first, with the other legislative body following. Click on each step for more detailed information on what may take place in each step and what we need to do to move quality, affordable health care for all forward.
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Steps To Win
- Initial proposals
- Hearings / draft legislation
- Committees pass legislation
- Congress passes legislation
- House & Senate bills reconciled & passed
- President signs bill into law
Completed Steps
Click on each completed step to see where we've been and what we've accomplished towards our goal of winning quality, affordable health care for all.
Step 2: Committees Hold Hearings/Draft Legislation
Step 3: Committees Pass Legislation
Step 4: Congress Passes Legislation
Step 5: House and Senate Bills Reconciled and Passed
CURRENT STEP - Step 6: President Signs Bill Into Law
The President signed the Senate bill - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - into law on March 23rd. On March 30th, he will sign the package of improvements passed by the House and Senate, completing the health reform process.
(This page will be updated periodically. It was last revised on March 29th, 2010.)
