Health care bill information as vote nears

Health care vote tally (updated continuously)

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As I’m listening to President Obama’s speech on health care at George Mason University today, I’ve again come to realize how embarrassingly slow, not only this year’s attempts at health care reform has been, but nearly a century-long debate on the issue in this country. Even more so when compared to country’s like Germany and Great Britain, which enacted univeral health care more than a century ago and a half century ago, respectively.

The New York Times, which came out yesterday editorially in favor of passage (no secret there), has put together a historical timeline tracking America’s slow progress on reform.

A vote in the House will likely come Sunday, which would be one of the most historic pieces of legislation in history, and the single most important one regarding health care. Obama, who said at George Mason that he wasn’t sure how the vote would implicate his presidency, has, nonetheless, staked his career on it.

Here’s some resources to help you sort through the details of reconciliation bill:

Here’s my favorite chart, and the most enlightening regarding who’s pockets are lined by the health industry, a table mapping campaign contributions, how House members voted Nov. 7 and their current leaning:

Who’s in play: House health-care vote (Hint: check out Rep. Joe Barton)

A miraculous story of survival from Britain

Recently, I offered my own, tragic in ways, yet inspiring story. Here, I offer a wholly inspiring one, of Hannah Clark of Great Britain, the kind of amazing story that has helped keep me alive for these 30-plus years. Her full story, which can be found here, details how surgeons grafted a donor heart “directly onto her own failing heart.”

Image: Heart operation patient Hannah Clark

Clark, 16, had, for a period of 10 years, in fact, two hearts:

After 10 years with two blood-pumping organs, Hannah Clark’s faulty one did what many experts had thought impossible: It healed itself enough so that doctors could remove the donated heart. — The Associated Press

The heart, according to Dr. Douglas Zipes, a past president of the American College of Cardiology, has “major regenerative powers, and it is now key to find out how they work.”