US health care overhaul still has to pass Senate
Source: Agencies |
March 25, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
UNITED States President Barack Obama has signed into law a sweeping overhaul of US health care in a defining moment of his presidency, but one last chapter in the epic struggle is still playing out in the Senate.
Senators are debating a package of fixes to the new health reform law, demanded by House Democrats as their price for passing the nearly US$1 trillion overhaul legislation that will extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans over the next decade.
Obama signed the bill on Tuesday, declaring "a new season in America" as he sealed a victory denied to a line of presidents stretching back nearly half a century. Failure would have weakened him and endangered other issues on the president's ambitious domestic agenda, including immigration reform and climate change legislation.
The fix-it bill under consideration in the Senate eliminates special deals for some individual states from the new law and softens a tax on high-cost insurance plans that was repugnant to organized labor. It also provides more expansive subsidies to lower-income people to purchase insurance, and offers more generous prescription drug coverage to seniors, among other changes.
Its approval at the end of this week is virtually assured since it's being debated under fast-track budget rules that allow passage with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes usually required for action in the 100-seat Senate. Democrats control 59 Senate seats.
That didn't stop Republicans from using the floor debate in the Senate as an opportunity to repeat the accusations they have lobbed at Obama's health legislation for the past year: that it raises taxes, slashes Medicare coverage for seniors, and includes a burdensome and constitutionally questionable requirement for nearly all Americans to carry health insurance.
The main suspense in this week's debate is whether the fix-it bill can emerge from the Senate unchanged.
Senators are debating a package of fixes to the new health reform law, demanded by House Democrats as their price for passing the nearly US$1 trillion overhaul legislation that will extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans over the next decade.
Obama signed the bill on Tuesday, declaring "a new season in America" as he sealed a victory denied to a line of presidents stretching back nearly half a century. Failure would have weakened him and endangered other issues on the president's ambitious domestic agenda, including immigration reform and climate change legislation.
The fix-it bill under consideration in the Senate eliminates special deals for some individual states from the new law and softens a tax on high-cost insurance plans that was repugnant to organized labor. It also provides more expansive subsidies to lower-income people to purchase insurance, and offers more generous prescription drug coverage to seniors, among other changes.
Its approval at the end of this week is virtually assured since it's being debated under fast-track budget rules that allow passage with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes usually required for action in the 100-seat Senate. Democrats control 59 Senate seats.
That didn't stop Republicans from using the floor debate in the Senate as an opportunity to repeat the accusations they have lobbed at Obama's health legislation for the past year: that it raises taxes, slashes Medicare coverage for seniors, and includes a burdensome and constitutionally questionable requirement for nearly all Americans to carry health insurance.
The main suspense in this week's debate is whether the fix-it bill can emerge from the Senate unchanged.
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