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[cheapdate]

423. It's simply not true that nobody read the health care bill before it was passed.

The house and senate worked separately on different approaches to health care reform. The house debated several different approaches and approved of legislation that included a public option (which was the approach favored by the president). The senate advanced a bill out of the Finance Committee. This was the bill that eventaully became law.

I'm not going to recount the entire series of procedural steps that eventually led to passage of the senate bill. Suffice it to say that up until right near the end, the house continued to fight for its legislation and the senate continued to push for its bill to be adopted. With time running out, house leader Nancy Pelosi conceded and brought the senate replacement bill to the house floor for a final house vote.

The house approved of the senate changes and when asked by the press about the vote, Pelosi said with resignation and I'm sure no small amount of frustration that she hadn't read the bill. Her entire energy had been focused for more than a year on passing the house bill. She hadn't read the senate bill.

But by no means does that mean that no one read or understood the senate bill before it was passed. The "Baucus Bill" had been under consideration in the senate finance committee as early as 2007. The committee published an early draft of the bill in November 2008, just days after Barack Obama's election. By that time, the senate had been holding hearings on the bill for more than a year.

The bill would not be passed until after another year and half of hearings and debates. During that time, it was subjected to the most intense interest, scrutiny, and debate of any other single piece of legislation in my lifetime. The debates took place in Washington and around the entire country. The bill itself was publicly available for this entire time. Many people read and reviewed it.

Both the bills (the house and senate versions) were publicly available. Both bills were thoroughly reviewed and scored by the CBO. Both bills were thoroughly scrutinized and reviewed by numerous health policy institutions who published review papers, summaries, and guides for anyone who was interested. Private and professional groups with an interest reviewed the proposed legislation exhaustively. Anyone who was interested could review the bills. I did.