Monday vote will lead towards passage of the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health-care system in more than four decades.
The US Senate is poised on Monday to take an early morning vote that will lead toward passage of the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health-care system in more than four decades.
The vote to cut off debate is scheduled for 1 AM, Monday, in a US Capitol blanketed by a snowstorm and filled with weary senators and staff. Democrats, finally united in favour of the bill, are using the clock to overcome delaying tactics by Republicans universally opposed to the effort.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to win final passage by December 24 now that he secured the vote of his party’s last holdout, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. The 10-year, $871 billion bill is designed to cover 31 million uninsured Americans, curb costs and place new restrictions on insurers.
“The American people will have the vote they deserve on genuine reform,” President Barack Obama, who has made the issue his top legislative priority, told reporters. “We are on the cusp of making health-care reform a reality.”
Nelson had held out the possibility Reid wouldn’t meet his deadline of Christmas passage as he objected to parts of the bill, giving critics hope for more time to marshal opposition. He finally struck a deal that satisfied his demand to keep US subsidies from being used for abortion and won an agreement for more aid to help Nebraska provide coverage for the uninsured.
The agreement came late on December 18 over a handshake.
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“It was a pretty powerful moment,” said Reid, a Nevada Democrat. “That’s what this place is built on, handshakes.”
Reid needed Nelson’s support because passage will require all 60 votes controlled by Democrats to cut off stalling tactics from Republicans, who say the measure would raise taxes, hurt insurers and widen the federal budget deficit.
The Republican leaders in both the House and Senate, Ohio Representative John Boehner and Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, called the bill a “monstrosity”.
Reid’s plan would cover 94 per cent of eligible Americans under 65, and reduce the deficit by $132 billion over its first decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.
Like the $1 trillion measure passed on November 7 by the House, the Senate plan would require Americans to get health coverage or pay a penalty. It would expand the Medicaid health program for the poor, set up online insurance-purchasing exchanges and provide subsidies for those who need help buying policies. If it passes the Senate, the bill would then have to be reconciled with the version passed by the House and signed by Obama.
Nelson warned that his vote isn’t guaranteed if the bill is revised much in negotiations with the House. If there are big changes, “I will vote against it,” he told reporters.
Health insurers and companies such as medical-device maker Medtronic Inc of Minneapolis and drugmaker Pfizer Inc of New York would get millions of new customers with the extension of coverage. Their industries would also face billions of dollars in new fees.