According to the article “House Committee Approves Health-Care Package” by Paul Kane and Perry Bacon Jr on washingtonpost.com, the House Energy And Commerce Committee has approved a sweeping package of health insurance measures, which clears an important hurdle, setting the stage for a battle between Democrats and Republicans.

The House legislation’s focus is a government run alternative health insurance to compete with private individual health insurance.  This is an effort to ultimately drive down the rising costs of health care.  Special interest groups on both sides of the issue intend to spend millions of dollars in 50-60 congressional districts that are considered “swing votes”.

A deadline of mid-September has been set to reach an agreement on Congress’s version of the health care bill and get the ball rolling.  The debate is already very intense because of an increase in TV and radio ads over recent weeks from other groups outside of Congress.  It’s only going to get more intense for the coming months as decisions are made.