Dingell savors health reform he long championed

Washington -- Sunday was triumphant for Rep. John Dingell, who has pushed for decades to fulfill his congressman father's dream of passing national health care.

But as victory teetered in the balance, he knew he had work to do behind the scenes.

Dingell turned to his protégé, Rep. Bart Stupak, for a face-to-face discussion about how to resolve Stupak's key concern: making sure funding for abortion was not part of the bill.

"Mr. Dingell had a piece of me (Saturday) for quite some time," Stupak said.

Stupak said the dean of the House of Representatives was chief among a group of Democratic leaders who put pressure on him to reach a deal with the White House so he would switch to a "yea" vote on the bill.

Once it passed, Dingell's Democratic colleagues acknowledged his long push for an overhaul of the nation's health care with a standing ovation Sunday night.

Dingell called the final outcome "a long stride forward" in achieving his career-long goal of national health care coverage.

"I'm very, very happy," said the beaming 83-year-old Dearborn Democrat, who got to bed well after 1 a.m. Monday but was up early to do his first TV interview at 6:45 a.m. A flood of TV, radio and newspaper interviews followed, underscoring how much credit he is given for helping the Democrats score the legislative victory.

"I feel awfully good for me, for Dad, and for the American people."

Dingell arrived at Congress in 1955, a grieving 29-year-old who had won his father's congressional seat after his death.

The son began a tradition: At the start of each congressional session, he introduced a national health insurance bill that the senior Dingell sponsored.

Father and son believed that health care is a right, not a privilege.

John Dingell said he thought his dad would be happy about the bill.

"It's like a new offspring. You don't know whether he will turn out to be a champion boxer, president of the United States or a star pitcher. This has just happened, and we will have to give it some time to see how good of draftsmen we were."

Displaying legendary salesman skills, Dingell ticked off what he sees as the $940 billion plan's assets, starting with its goal of covering 32 million uninsured Americans.

"Prices won't be permitted to run amok," he said. People will be able to choose plans "in simple English" and small businesses "will be able to afford insurance."

The bill bans insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions and closes the prescription drug coverage gap -- the "doughnut hole" -- by 2020 for "our seniors," he added.

Dingell had pushed for a public option, believing it would spur competition by private insurers, driving down costs. That provision didn't make it into the final bill.

"We will have to find out empirically if there is sufficient competition," he acknowledged.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer pointedly referred to Dingell -- the longest-serving member ever in the House -- to help him add even more historic sweep to Sunday night's session and to comfort those Democrats worried about potential political costs.

"We sit in this chamber tonight with John Dingell ... who stood at that rostrum with a gavel that the speaker will use tonight to gavel through Medicare. That ensured millions and millions and millions of seniors would not be crushed by poverty and put into bankruptcy by the cost of health care," Hoyer said.

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi banged Dingell's gavel to mark the historic vote.

dprice@detnews.com">dprice@detnews.com (202) 662-8736 Detroit News Staff Writer Nathan Hurst contributed.