Senate Democrats Cut a Deal; Reach 60 Votes

Early Saturday morning, Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) released a 383-page manager's amendment to the Senate health insurance reform proposal, indicating that he has secured the 60 votes needed to pass the legislation by Christmas. Senate Republicans immediately invoked the first of many delay tactics by requiring the Senate Clerk to read the entire bill aloud. Appeasing the last Democratic holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mr. Reid modified language that does not require or forbid health insurance plans from covering abortion services, but does include an exemption that allows states to prohibit abortion coverage in the insurance markets or the exchanges, where most plans would be sold. Nebraska will also receive, under the amendment, a substantial increase in federal matching dollars that support the state's Medicaid program - the federal-state entitlement program that provides coverage to the poor.

This version of the Senate bill will cost, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, $871 billion and reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion over ten years, The Hill reports. Costing $22 billion more than its original version, the bill is predicted to cover an additional 31 million Americans.

The complete manager's amendment can be found on the Senate Democrats' website or by clicking here.

Coming only a day after a public opinion poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation indicated that public support for reform is weakening, Mr. Reid has scheduled six votes to pass the legislation by Christmas. The first one, the next move in the process, is a 1:00am vote early Monday morning to end debate on the manager's amendment. All six procedural moves can be found at a post to the New York Times Prescriptions Blog or by clicking here.

A New York Times article discussing the changes made to key components of the legislation can be found by clicking here.

Democrats Drop Medicare Plan

On Monday evening, in a reversal of a highly controversial plan to expand Medicare to those aged 55 and older, Senate Democratic leaders announced that they would be dropping the plan from their proposed bill that is currently being debated on the floor.

The announcement comes only hours before President Obama is scheduled to meet with Senate Democrats Tuesday morning. This comes in response, seemingly, to threats made by two centrists, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Ne.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.), to not vote for the bill if it includes the Medicare expansion. Majority leader Harry Reid, along with Mr. Obama, have made it clear that they want a vote on the bill come Christmas and, as evidenced by this latest development, are willing to make all the deals needed.

Read the complete story at The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.

Medicare Expansion Faces Challenges

As Senate Democrats consider expanding Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly, as part of a public option compromise, myriad political obstacles stand in their way. First, many Republicans oppose the idea, claiming the slippery slope to a government-run, single-payer system it would spark would be worse than the one a public option would have began. Second, three centrists - Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Ben Nelson (D-NE), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) have voiced their opposition to the plan that would expand coverage, through a buy-in mechanism, to those between the ages of 55 and 64.

To read more on the issue, click here.