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US health care reform another step closer
Source: Agencies |
December 22, 2009, Tuesday
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UNITED States Barack Obama scored a major victory on his top domestic issue as Senate Democrats narrowly prevailed on a procedural vote yesterday backing his plan to overhaul America's health care system.
The vote all but ensures that the Senate will approve a bill extending health care to 30 million uninsured Americans before Christmas. But the final outcome remains unpredictable because the Senate measure must be reconciled with a starkly different bill already passed by the House of Representatives.
The US is the only industrialized country to lack a universal health care program, leaving nearly 50 million uninsured people to pay costly medical bills themselves. The majority of the country's more than 300 million people have private insurance, usually provided by their employers, with the government covering the indigent, disabled and elderly. Obama, nearly one year into his four-year term, has vowed to overhaul the system.
In yesterday's vote, all 58 Democrats and the Senate's two independents held together against unanimous Republican opposition, providing the exact 60-40 margin needed to shut down Republicans' threat to stall a vote.
The vote came shortly after 1am. The unusual timing was necessary to permit a final Senate vote by Christmas Eve on Thursday, even if Republicans stretch out the debate as much as the rules allow.
The vote all but ensures that the Senate will approve a bill extending health care to 30 million uninsured Americans before Christmas. But the final outcome remains unpredictable because the Senate measure must be reconciled with a starkly different bill already passed by the House of Representatives.
The US is the only industrialized country to lack a universal health care program, leaving nearly 50 million uninsured people to pay costly medical bills themselves. The majority of the country's more than 300 million people have private insurance, usually provided by their employers, with the government covering the indigent, disabled and elderly. Obama, nearly one year into his four-year term, has vowed to overhaul the system.
In yesterday's vote, all 58 Democrats and the Senate's two independents held together against unanimous Republican opposition, providing the exact 60-40 margin needed to shut down Republicans' threat to stall a vote.
The vote came shortly after 1am. The unusual timing was necessary to permit a final Senate vote by Christmas Eve on Thursday, even if Republicans stretch out the debate as much as the rules allow.
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