Senate Health Bill Clears Crucial Test on Way to Final Passage At 1:15am EST

Bloomberg
Senate Health Bill Clears Crucial Test on Way to Final Passage
written by James Rowley and Kristin Jensen
Monday December 21, 2009 at 1:40am est

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Legislation calling for the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health-care system in more than four decades survived a crucial test vote to stay on a path to final Senate passage later this week.

All 60 members of the Democratic caucus voted to curtail debate on the $871 billion measure against united opposition from Senate Republicans, who say the bill would raise taxes, hurt insurers and widen the federal deficit. Democrats scheduled the 1 a.m. vote to thwart Republican tactics aimed at preventing final passage before Christmas.

Barring surprise defections, the vote clears the way for passage by Dec. 24. The Senate must then draft a compromise with the House, which approved its own bill on Nov. 7. Both measures cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans and attempt to curb rising medical expenditures.

“Let’s make history,” Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin, who runs the Senate health committee, said before the vote. “The other side says no. We say yes. We say yes to progress, yes to people, yes to health care as an inalienable right of every American citizen.”

[WTF? Health care is NOT an inalienable right! Whatever happened to FREEDOM of choice! If a citizen is FORCED to purchase a product, where is the FREEDOM in that? Very tricky! They used the word IN-alienable vs. UN-alienable. You CAN NOT surrender, sell or transfer unalienable rights, they are a gift from the creator to the individual and can not under any circumstances be surrendered or taken. All individual's have unalienable rights. However, you can surrender, sell or transfer inalienable rights IF YOU CONSENT either actually or constructively. Inalienable rights are NOT INHERENT in man and can be alienated by government. Persons have inalienable rights. Most state constitutions recognize only inalienable rights.]

The victory for Democrats looked in doubt as recently as three days ago as Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson insisted on changes in the language regarding federal funding for abortion and sought key concessions for his home state. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid struck a deal with him late on Dec. 18 and Nelson pledged his support the next day for the legislation, President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

Biggest Since Medicare

Reid’s plan, representing the biggest changes to the health system since the Medicare program for the elderly was started in 1965, would cover 94 percent 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 House bill, the 10-year Senate plan requires that Americans get insurance or pay a penalty, while at the same time requiring insurers to accept all comers, regardless of preexisting conditions. It offers expanded government aid for the poor and sets up new online purchasing exchanges so the uninsured can shop for policies. [Just you wait and see, the IRS is being given more tracking power. Everybody will have to report what type of health care coverage they have to the IRS. You think the IRS is bad now. Once this health care bill passes, they will turn into the American Gestapo! No joke! Because health care insurance will be MANDATED by the U.S. federal government, meaning FORCED UPON the American people whether you want it or not!]

Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. and other health insurers would get millions of new customers, also a benefit for companies such as medical-device maker Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis and drugmaker Pfizer Inc. of New York. Their industries would also face billions of dollars in new fees.

More Votes Ahead

The battle in the Senate isn’t over for Democratic leaders. They will be required to muster 60 votes for each of two other procedural votes before the Senate can agree on final passage, possibly on Christmas Eve. Democrats need only a simple majority of the 100-member Senate to pass the legislation. Today’s test vote to overcome a Republican filibuster was the most important, as the same 60-member bloc of 58 Democrats and two independents are expected to stick together to support final passage.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Democrats were defying the will of the people.

“Americans have already issued their verdict; they don’t want it,” McConnell said. “It raises premiums” and “raises taxes” and “plunders Medicare by half a trillion dollars.”

‘Defies Logic’

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the only Republican to vote for a Senate plan on the committee level, criticized Reid for pushing complex legislation through on an arbitrary deadline.

“It defies logic that we are now expected to vote on the overall, final package before Christmas with no opportunity to amend it so we can adjourn for a three-week recess even as the legislation will not fully go into effect UNTIL 2014,” Snowe said in a statement yesterday. [The federal government is going to have all of us start paying for services that will NOT be rendered until 2014! It's like rushing to purchase a home, any home (more like a MONEY PIT), not reading the purchase contract and then finding out that you can't move in for another 4 years but they want you to start making payments today. That sounds like big-time bullsh*t to me!]

Reid struck last-minute deals with Democrats to win their support, issuing a 383-PAGE amendment on Dec. 19 to go along with a 2,074-page measure released last month. [NOT ONE SENATOR THAT VOTED YES HAS READ THE DAMN BILL!]

Reid also boosted penalties for companies that don’t provide health insurance. Any company with more than 50 employees could face a penalty of $750 per worker, multiplied by the total number of full-time workers it employs, if just one obtains subsidized coverage through an exchange. That is up from a penalty of $400 in an earlier draft.

Medicare Cuts

The legislation depends on hundreds of billions of dollars of savings from Medicare to pay for the expansion of insurance. In a letter to Reid yesterday, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said his agency expects the bill to lower the growth rate for Medicare spending, yet he urged caution.

“It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care,” Elmendorf wrote. [Since when have any of you known the government to be EFFICIENT at anything they run?!]