U.S. Senate passes landmark health-care bill

Updated: Thu Dec. 24 2009 07:52:50

CTV.ca News Staff

In the U.S. Senate’s first Christmas Eve vote in more than a century, Democrats have passed a health-care bill that could become a defining piece of Barack Obama’s presidency and extend coverage to millions of Americans.

After months of debate and discussion, the bill passed by a margin of 60-39. Fifty-eight Democrats and two independent Senators voted in favour of the bill, with Republicans voting unanimously against it.

Majority Leader Harry Reid hailed the vote as the first step towards upgrading the country’s health-care system.

“This morning isn’t the end of the process, it’s merely the beginning. We’ll continue to build on this success to improve our health system even more,” Reid said before the vote. “But that process cannot begin unless we start today … there may not be a next time.”

The version of the bill passed in the Senate must now be merged with the version passed by the House of Representatives, which may prove difficult as the two versions differ in some respects. Once merged, Obama would sign the final bill into law in the new year.

Both the Senate and the House bill would bring health-care insurance to some 30 million people in the United States.

Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who devoted his political career to health-care reform, watched from the Senate gallery as the vote unfolded.

Meanwhile Republicans continued to rail against the legislation in the lead up to, and after the Senate vote.

“Not even Ebenezer Scrooge himself could devise a scheme as cruel and greedy as Democrats’ government takeover of health care,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said moments after the bill was passed.

It was the first time the Senate has sat on Christmas Eve since 1895, when the upper house was asked to decide on a bill regarding employment of Confederate officers from the American Civil War.

The House of Representatives passed a version of the health-care reform bill in November. With both chambers of Congress having approved a version of the legislation, the U.S. government has become closer to overhauling the country’s national health-care system than any time in the past.

Stephen Farnsworth, a political expert and professor at George Mason University, told Canada AM that while the bill would extend health coverage to more people, it would not come close to creating a public health-care system similar to Canada’s.

“The proposal that we’re looking at today would involve cutting the number of uninsured Americans basically in half,” Fansworth said. “About 20 million uninsured Americans will be unaffected by this bill.”

“It makes it more affordable for people without insurance to get health care,” he added. “But in terms of national health insurance program like that in Canada and so many other Western democracies, that’s another bill, another day, a long way it seems, politically.”

If the legislation becomes law, it would prevent health-insurance companies from denying benefits to people who have medical conditions. It would also keep insurers from charging higher premiums to that group.

The bill would reduce public deficits by $130 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, as long as proposed cuts to insurance companies, and to staff who treat Medicare patients, go through.

Almost all Americans would be required to carry health insurance under the legislation. Low-income Americans would receive subsidies to help them pay. Employers would be encouraged to cover their employees through a mix of penalties and tax credits.

The proposed reforms would cost nearly $1 trillion over the course of a decade. Taxes, fees and Medicare cuts would pay for the overhauled system.

Democrats made a number of deals during the last week before Christmas Eve to secure the 60 votes needed to keep Republicans from launching a filibuster in the Senate.

The 60th vote came from conservative Democrat Ben Nelson. To win his support, the government will pay 100 percent of the cost of a planned Medicaid expansion in his home state of Nebraska, in perpetuity.

As early as next week, the House and the Senate are expected to begin discussing how to merge the two health-care bills. The Senate bill does not contain a government-run option for health insurance, while the House version does. In addition, the Senate version has less strict rules concerning abortion than does the House version.

With files from The Associated Press