KOLD News 13 live, local and late breaking-Representatives Grijalva and Giffords vote for Health Care Bill

Representatives Grijalva and Giffords vote for Health Care Bill

By Mark Stine - bio

Tucson, AZ (KOLD) - We spoke with Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva, who voted for the bill, over the phone after tonight's vote.  He said it was a humbling and overwhelming experience voting for such an historic bill.

Grijalva explained a couple of the highlights he says are in the bill.  He told us there's no pre-existing condition denial, meaning if a person has a pre-existing condition they can't be denied services. He also said this bill will extend benefits to millions of American's who don't otherwise have an opportunity to receive health care coverage.

Representative Grijalva said, "It's not as strong as many of us wanted it, but it does provide for private insurances a competitive competition that will keep costs lower and make some of the premiums we see and some of the costs that we see from private insurance carriers are going to have to reduce their costs to compete with this public option."

On Representative Gabrielle Giffords web site, she said she is fully aware that her vote cast for the bill is one of the most important votes of her tenure in the house of representatives and said it's the right thing to do.

On her Twitter account after tonight's vote she said, "Bill has passed the house. Not perfect. Changes can and will be made. Failure to reform health insurance industry is not an option."

This bill will now go to the Senate and it most likely will change. Grijalva told us it won't go into effect until 2013.

Overall, he says this bill gets the ball moving forward, but there are many hurdles to cross especially with the public option as it moves to the Senate.

Stay with KOLD News 13 for continuing coverage of this historic vote.

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