What’s the 422?

For months now, Americans have heard from health care reform advocates and opposition lobbyists. Saturday night, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 220 – 215 after hours of testimony to approve a landmark reform bill.

Up next, the Senate must hammer out its own version.

Below are a few highlights of the House package, as reported by The Washington Post.

Businesses with payrolls exceeding $500,000 would be required to offer health insurance to employees or face a fine of up to 8 percent of payroll.

Individuals would be required to purchase insurance on the private market or pay a fine of up to 2.5 percent of income. Massachusetts currently imposes a similar mandate. Supporters say expanding coverage without such a requirement makes it more difficult to offer reasonably-priced plans.

According to the Post, seniors would receive discounts on prescription drugs. The “gap” in Medicare drug coverage would be eliminated by the year 2019.

The unemployed may keep their COBRA coverage, under the House plan, until 2013. That is the same year the public plan and insurance exchanges take effect. Presently, COBRA benefits are temporarily extended to laid off workers for a fee, enabling them to continue health insurance benefits.

Individual states would be required to extend Medicaid coverage to as many as 15 million additional low-income Americans.

New taxes include a 5.4 percent tax on annual incomes above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for families. It would not be indexed to inflation, the Post reported.

Finally, insurance companies cannot deny a person coverage for a “pre-existing condition,” under the House bill. Companies such as Cigna, Aetna and other insurers must justify premium increases, and may not remove adult children younger than 27 from their parents’ insurance plan.