Senate Passes Health Bill
- The Senate approved its final healthcare legislation at 7 a.m. Christmas Eve by a party-line vote of 60 to 39.
- The vote ends the twenty-fifth straight day of debate on the legislation, clearing the way for negotiations with the House, which passed a similar bill last month by a vote of 220 to 215.
- Negotiations have already begun. Lawmakers hope to have a merged bill in time for Obama's State of the Union Address. However, debates over abortion, taxes and the public option, among other points of tension, could drag the negotiations out until February.
Main Ideas
- The bill would require most Americans to have health insurance, and would add 15 million people to Medicaid. The government would subsidize private coverage for low- and middle-income people.
- Employers would not explicitly be required to provide coverage.
- The bill would enact strict new regulations on health insurers and put in place measures to reform the way healthcare services are delivered.
- States would operate health exchanges (Web portals) to allow individuals and small business employees to purchase coverage.
- No government-run insurance plan is included. Instead, the bill calls for a national plan run by private insurers, similar to the federal employees health plan.
- The Congressional Budget Office estimates the total cost of the bill to be $871 billion over 10 years, reducing the deficits by $130 billion over the same period.
- The CBO projects that the bill would provide coverage to 31 million uninsured people, leaving 23 million uninsured in 2019 (less covered than in House bill).
- Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/health/policy/25health.html?_r=1&hp
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