WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved sweeping health-overhaul legislation on Thursday, a landmark moment for White House-led efforts to expand insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans.

 

The bill, approved by a 60-39 vote, would deliver on a long-promised Democratic goal of extending coverage to nearly every American, and would represent the biggest expansion of the federal safety net since the 1965 creation of Medicare, the health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

 

Thursday's vote was a victory for President Barack Obama, who made the issue his top domestic priority despite lingering divisions among Democrats and the fierce opposition of Republicans. And it was a validation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to build consensus on his side of the aisle, rather than reach across party lines, a move that would have forced a lowering of ambitions.

 

Negotiations now must begin to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, with the compromise bill facing another vote in each chamber. President Obama hopes to sign the bill before his State of the Union address in late January.

 

Republicans said the bill would impose massive regulatory and financial burdens on taxpayers and businesses, and would dig the government even deeper in debt. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) told the chamber just before the vote that Democrats should expect an "earful" from angry constituents when they go home

 

"This fight is long from over," Mr. McConnell said. "My colleagues and I will fight to ensure this bill doesn't become law. That's the clear will of the American people."

 

All 58 Democrats and two independents voted for the bill, while 39 Republicans voted against it. Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky.) did not vote.

 

Mr. Reid said he also expected to get an earful, but from Americans who will benefit from the expanded health-care coverage and new rules on insurance companies. "Our charge is to move forward," he said, adding that the bill meets a national need that presidents have pushed for since Harry Truman. "Though some may slow the progress, they cannot stop it," he said.

 

At the White House, President Obama welcomed the Senate vote and said, "We are now finally poised to deliver on the promise" of expanding care and overhauling the nation's health system. Mr. Obama pressed lawmakers to "finish the job" and deliver a compromise package to his desk in the "coming weeks."

 

With Christmas looming, Mr. Reid closed a series of last-minute deals to secure the support of balky Democrats and then plunged the Senate into a forced march, beginning with a 1 a.m. vote Monday and culminating with Thursday's roll call at 7 a.m. on passage of the bill.

 

The 10-year $871 billion measure would expand Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor, and create new tax subsidies to help lower- and middle-income families comply with a mandate to purchase insurance. That mandate would be enforced by a financial penalty of up to $750 for any individual who fails to get coverage.

 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation would reduce the budget deficit by $132 billion over the next decade, through a combination of tax increases on the health-care sector and spending cuts, which largely fall on Medicare payments to health-care providers.

 

The last time the Senate voted on Christmas Eve was 1895, the issue then being whether to provide federal benefits for U.S. servicemen. In a ceremony with 19th-century echoes, senators rose one by one Thursday from their simple wooden desks to cast their votes. Vice President Joe Biden presided over the chamber.

 

"Mr. President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye," said 92-year-old Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, referring to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, who was a champion of universal health care. Sen. Kennedy's widow watched the vote from the gallery.

 

Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) called the vote the "most important" in his more than 20 years as a U.S. senator. "Progress is not easy," he said. "Today we were able to prove it is not impossible."

 

Mr. Reid, clearly worn from the week's grueling schedule, initially voted "no," to the surprise of many in the chamber. He put his head down on his desk, laughing, then stood again and changed his vote to "aye."

 

Republicans accused Democrats of rushing the vote and noted that Mr. Reid put out a nearly 400-page amendment to the bill on Saturday "over the weekend of a snowstorm," as Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) put it. "This has been very troubling to a lot of us," he said.

 

The bill's passage puts Mr. Obama on the verge of creating a near-universal health-insurance system, an accomplishment that has eluded presidents since Theodore Roosevelt. By the end of the next decade, 94% of legal residents would have insurance coverage, up from 83% now, according to estimates by the CBO.

 

As soon as next year, consumers who enroll in new plans would no longer face lifetime limits on their insurance coverage, and insurers couldn't drop people's coverage because they get sick. By 2014, insurers could no longer deny any customers coverage because of a pre-existing health condition.

 

Insurance companies warn that the changes could raise premiums by bringing more people with health problems into the system while healthy people choose to go without coverage.

 

New state-based health-insurance exchanges would become the main marketplace for people buying coverage without the help of an employer, as well as some small employers. By 2019, about 30 million people are expected to get coverage through them.

 

Under the Senate bill, the exchange won't include a public health-insurance plan – one of the most contentious aspects of the health debate. The Senate jettisoned the provision after Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, and some centrist Democrats objected to the idea. Instead, consumers would be able to shop on the exchange for plans managed by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees insurance policies for federal workers.

 

The late-December vote means Congress won't conclude action on the bill by year's end, as the White House had once wanted. Leaders of the House and Senate are readying for negotiations that will begin shortly after the first of the year, and hope to forge a compromise package swiftly, possibly by the president's State of the Union address in late January.

 

"Everyone is pushing for that," said Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama's communications director. Mr. Pfeiffer suggested Senate passage is a demonstration that Congress and the White House can tackle seemingly intractable issues. "It's not always pretty, but Washington still has the capacity to deal with big problems," he said.

 

The House passed its version of health legislation Nov. 7, and tough negotiations loom with the Senate on a compromise package. Potential flashpoints include taxes and abortion policy, as well as the House's proposed government-run health plan.

 

Mr. Reid, at least for now, is declining to entertain questions about how the two bills will be melded. He said he is looking forward to spending a few days at home in Nevada over the holidays. "I'm going to sit back and watch my rabbits eat my cactus," he said.

 

The Senate bill would leave the existing employer-based health system largely intact, in an effort to ensure that already-insured Americans see no change in coverage. However, large companies would have to pay a penalty to the government if they do not provide affordable insurance and their workers end up seeking government assistance.

 

The last time Congress seriously pushed health overhaul legislation, in 1994, the effort died in the Senate. Fifteen years later, an opening to revive the issue was created with the election of a Democratic president and strong majorities in both chambers of Congress.

 

A series of breaks helped the Democrats secure the 60 votes needed to override the Republican filibuster. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched parties. Al Franken, a Democrat, prevailed in the Minnesota Senate race by a tiny margin after a months-long recount. After Sen. Kennedy's death, the Massachusetts legislature changed state law to allow his replacement to be seated immediately, rather than waiting for a special election.

 

"It would be hard in our lifetimes to recreate that moment," said Sen. Robert Casey (D., Pa.).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126165317923104141.html?mod=rss_com_mostcommentart

 

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i'm so happy about this :rolleyes:

 

 

I get that people need health insurance, and everyone needs to be able get have an opportunity to get it... then make it cheaper. I hate how the government keeps trying to take over more and more (car companies, now this). The middle class is going to suffer for this because the rich will always be fine, and the poor are covered. Also where is all this money going to come from? If this spending keeps going at the rate it does this country will be completely bankrupt soon.

 

What is the biggest kick of it all is that this doesn't go into effect AFTER the next election, so when Obama runs in 2012 this decision essentially can't be much of an issue in the debates because there's nothing to judge him on.

 

sorry for the short rant. I know that some people are extremely happy about this, and good for them. I just hate how something as big as health care overhaul gets rushed through so quickly (and barely even read).

 

 

And also I'm not a republican or democrat. I think that bush did a terrible job and is the cause for a lot of the problems we have.

Yay! We all have health insurance (at the point of a gun)!

 

Now what?

 

Oh that's right, now we all need DOCTORS.

 

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1209/Dems_not_worried_about_postvote_backlash_at_home.html?showall

 

On the floor before the vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "We're going to hear an earful, but it's going to be an earful of wonderment and happiness that people waited for for a long time."

 

 

All my hopes and dreams... finally...

There go more jobs, growth and trillions of dollars wasted! Don't worry the politicians will be ok with their Mercedes and expensive prostitutes! They won't have to take any cuts from this like many will in the economy.

The only good thing about this is that people will at least have basic health coverage. Copayments and exemptions will always be present.