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Dems, White House predict success on health care
Source: Agencies |
December 23, 2009, Wednesday
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US Democrats confidently predicted Senate passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul after it easily cleared the second of three critical procedural votes yesterday morning.
A final vote on Obama's top domestic priority is slated for 8 am (1300 GMT) Thursday, Christmas Eve. It would mark the 25th consecutive day of Senate debate on health care.
Obama said the Senate legislation accomplishes 95 percent of what he wanted on health care. "Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill," the president said in an interview with The Washington Post.
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs declared: "Health care reform is not a matter of if. Health care reform is now a matter of when."
Senate Democrats remained united behind their compromise bill over steadfast Republican opposition. A motion to shut off debate and move to a vote on a package of changes by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid passed Tuesday along party lines, 60-39.
The final 60-vote hurdle to end debate is expected to be cleared Wednesday afternoon, setting up the Thursday morning-before-Christmas vote on the legislation, which at that point will need only a simple majority to pass.
The 10-year, nearly US$1 trillion plan before the Senate would extend coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans, with a new requirement for almost everyone to purchase insurance. The United States, unlike all other developed countries, lacks universal health care.
Subsidies would be provided to help lower-income and middle-income people pay for the insurance, and more businesses would be encouraged to cover their employees through a combination of tax breaks and penalties.
Unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with existing health conditions would be banned. Uninsured or self-employed Americans would have a new way to buy health insurance, via marketplaces called exchanges where private insurers would sell health plans required to meet certain minimum standards.
The Senate measure would still have to be harmonized with the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives in November. Both chambers would then have to approve the final legislation before it could be sent to Obama for his signature.
While there are many common features to the Senate and House versions, significant differences between the two bills remain. These include stricter abortion language in the House bill, a new government-run insurance plan in the House bill that's missing from the Senate version, and a tax on high-cost insurance plans embraced by the Senate but strongly opposed by many House Democrats instead backed higher taxes on wealthy Americans.
Senate moderates have served notice they won't support a final deal if government-run insurance comes back. And Democratic abortion opponents in the House say a Senate compromise on the volatile issue is unacceptable.
Also Tuesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham denounced concessions won by conservative Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, whose support gave Democrats the 60th and final vote they need. Among other things, Nelson got an agreement that the federal government will pay to expand federal health care services in his state, Nebraska.
Reid has defended the dealmaking, asserting that every senator got something they were looking for in the health bill and if they didn't it speaks poorly of them.
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida announced that the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to his request to investigate whether drug companies are raising prices of brand-name prescription drugs used by federal health care beneficiaries ahead of passage of the health care bill.
A final vote on Obama's top domestic priority is slated for 8 am (1300 GMT) Thursday, Christmas Eve. It would mark the 25th consecutive day of Senate debate on health care.
Obama said the Senate legislation accomplishes 95 percent of what he wanted on health care. "Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill," the president said in an interview with The Washington Post.
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs declared: "Health care reform is not a matter of if. Health care reform is now a matter of when."
Senate Democrats remained united behind their compromise bill over steadfast Republican opposition. A motion to shut off debate and move to a vote on a package of changes by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid passed Tuesday along party lines, 60-39.
The final 60-vote hurdle to end debate is expected to be cleared Wednesday afternoon, setting up the Thursday morning-before-Christmas vote on the legislation, which at that point will need only a simple majority to pass.
The 10-year, nearly US$1 trillion plan before the Senate would extend coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans, with a new requirement for almost everyone to purchase insurance. The United States, unlike all other developed countries, lacks universal health care.
Subsidies would be provided to help lower-income and middle-income people pay for the insurance, and more businesses would be encouraged to cover their employees through a combination of tax breaks and penalties.
Unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with existing health conditions would be banned. Uninsured or self-employed Americans would have a new way to buy health insurance, via marketplaces called exchanges where private insurers would sell health plans required to meet certain minimum standards.
The Senate measure would still have to be harmonized with the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives in November. Both chambers would then have to approve the final legislation before it could be sent to Obama for his signature.
While there are many common features to the Senate and House versions, significant differences between the two bills remain. These include stricter abortion language in the House bill, a new government-run insurance plan in the House bill that's missing from the Senate version, and a tax on high-cost insurance plans embraced by the Senate but strongly opposed by many House Democrats instead backed higher taxes on wealthy Americans.
Senate moderates have served notice they won't support a final deal if government-run insurance comes back. And Democratic abortion opponents in the House say a Senate compromise on the volatile issue is unacceptable.
Also Tuesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham denounced concessions won by conservative Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, whose support gave Democrats the 60th and final vote they need. Among other things, Nelson got an agreement that the federal government will pay to expand federal health care services in his state, Nebraska.
Reid has defended the dealmaking, asserting that every senator got something they were looking for in the health bill and if they didn't it speaks poorly of them.
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida announced that the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to his request to investigate whether drug companies are raising prices of brand-name prescription drugs used by federal health care beneficiaries ahead of passage of the health care bill.
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