WASHINGTON – Democrats confidently predicted yesterday that US president Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul would clear the US Senate after it passed the second of three critical procedural votes.
A final vote on Mr Obama’s top domestic priority is planned for 8am local time today. It will mark the 25th consecutive day of Senate debate on healthcare.
Mr Obama said the Senate legislation accomplished 95 per cent of what he wanted on healthcare.
“Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this Bill,” the president said in an interview with the Washington Post.
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “Healthcare reform is not a matter of if; healthcare reform is now a matter of when.”
Senate Democrats remained united behind their compromise Bill over steadfast Republican opposition. A motion to shut off debate and move to a vote on a package of changes by Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid passed on Tuesday along party lines, 60-39.
The final 60-vote hurdle to end debate was expected to be cleared yesterday, setting up the Christmas Eve vote on the legislation, which will need only a simple majority to pass.
The 10-year, nearly one trillion-dollar plan before the Senate would extend coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans, with a new requirement for almost everyone to buy insurance.
The US, unlike other developed countries, lacks universal healthcare.
Subsidies would be provided to help lower- and middle-income people pay for the insurance and more businesses would be encouraged to cover their employees through a combination of tax breaks and penalties.
Unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with existing conditions would be banned. Uninsured or self-employed Americans would have a new way to buy health insurance via marketplaces called exchanges, where private insurers would sell health plans required to meet certain minimum standards.
The Senate measure would still have to be harmonised with the healthcare Bill passed by the House of Representatives in November. Both chambers would then have to approve the final legislation before it could be sent to Mr Obama for his signature.
While there are many common features to the Senate and House versions, significant differences between the two Bills remain.
These include stricter abortion language in the House Bill, a government-run insurance plan in the House Bill that is missing from the Senate version, and a tax on high-cost insurance plans embraced by the Senate but strongly opposed by many House Democrats who instead backed higher taxes on wealthy Americans.
Senate moderates have served notice that they will not support a final deal if government-run insurance comes back. Democratic abortion opponents in the House say a Senate compromise on the volatile issue is unacceptable. – (AP)