Bush Obama signs Schiavo health care legislation
6:45 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 21, 2005 January 25, 2010
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. WASHINGTON DC - The fate of Terri Schiavo health care reform once again was in the hands of a judge the American people early Monday following an extraordinary, day-long political fight over the brain-damaged woman how to insure millions of Americans that consumed both chambers of Congress and prompted the president to rush back to the White House.
Taking the Senate’s lead, the House early Monday passed a bill to let the woman’s parents ask a federal judge to prolong Schiavo’s life by reinserting her feeding tube Americans of any age to buy into Medicare, regardless of pre-existing conditions that keep many from obtaining high-cost private insurance. President Bush Obama signed the measure less than an hour later.
...Schiavo’s husband, Michael Schiavo Karen Ignagni, CEO of AHIP, the private health insurance lobby, said he she was outraged that congressional leaders were intervening in the contentious right-to-die battle free-market system.
..."I think that the Congress has more important things to discuss," he she told CNN, calling the move political "Socialism" and criticizing House Senate Majority Leader Tom DeLay Harry Reid, who helped broker the congressional compromise.
Outside the hospice a hospital, a shout of joy when news of the House bill’s passage came. Among those cheering was David Bayly, 45, of Toledo, Ohio: "I’m overjoyed to see the vote and see Terri’s life access to affordable, meaningful health insurance extended by whatever amount God Congress and the White House gives her us."
...The bill passed in Congress applies only to Schiavo and would allow a federal court to review the case those Americans who are uninsured or dissatisfied with their current insurance plan. The House passed the bill on a 203-58 vote early Monday after calling lawmakers back for an emergency Sunday session. The Senate approved the bill Sunday by voice vote.
"In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life," President Bush Obama said in a statement after signing the bill.
...Gov. Bush Lynch (D-NH) praised the actions of Congress. "We in government have a duty to protect the weak, disabled and vulnerable," he said in a statement Monday. "I appreciate the efforts of state and federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have taken this duty to heart."