In an early morning session, the US Senate voted 60-39 in favor of healthcare reform. All 58 Democrats plus two Independents supported the measure while all of the Republicans voted against. Republican Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky was absent from the vote. Upon its passage, Sen. Mark Warner issued the following statement:
I voted in support of the Senate health care bill. While this legislation is far from perfect, I believe it will start to curb soaring health care costs for consumers and businesses, reduce our federal budget deficits over time, and extend the life of the Medicare program.
In addition, a dozen of my freshman colleagues worked together to successfully add significant cost containment measures to the Senate proposal, and we have expanded programs that deliver higher-quality care at lower cost. Our amendments, which encourage innovation, broaden transparency and aggressively attack inefficiency and fraud, have received bipartisan support, as well as endorsements from AARP, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, and major businesses that make-up The Business Roundtable.
Rising medical costs are strangling the American economy, hurting American families, and killing our ability to compete globally. This legislation represents a strong start, and includes almost every approach suggested by leading experts to try to tackle medical costs that have more than doubled in the past decade.
As this bill moves to conference, the focus must remain on the goals of reducing health care costs, increasing efficiency and accountability, and incorporating private-sector solutions to our health care challenges.”
Warner is correct: the next fight will be in conference, as the bills passed by the House and Senate are significantly different. Yesterday, House Rules Committee Chair, Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), issued a strongly worded op-ed in which she said the Senate bill is not worthy of being called healthcare reform. The op-ed is considered by some to be a negotiating tool.
Something called healthcare reform will come out of Congress next year. What it will look like remains to be seen.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Something must be said of the fact that half this country – those who voted for Obama and who no doubt support this bill – are deciding for the other half what insurance reform is to be. Bear in mind this was not a bipartisan bill in spite of the Dems claim of wanting inclusion of the Reps.
To be clear; this isn’t health care reform. It is insurance reform and their stock is climbing on the news.
History I feel, will show the insurance companies will be the winners. I also feel historians will use this event as the basis for showing what happens to senators and representatives who lose touch with and ignore the voices of their constituents.
Also keep in mind that the Republican exclusion from the process was their choice, not the administration’s. Both McConnell and Boehner said from the beginning that their goal was to stop any bill at all in order to win the 2010 elections, and they enforced strict party discipline to that end.
This could have been a great day for the country. Thanks to Joe Lieberman (R-Aetna), Ben Nelso (D-Mutual of Omaha) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Dumbistan) it’s a great day for the insurance industry instead.
Merry Christmas to all…..
And politics is about what can be done. Under the Senate cloture rules, this is what 60 votes could produce. The better house bill barely passed with 51% of the votes.
The choice was to move forward, with some really good insurance reforms, or do nothing. I choose the former, whether flawed or not.
The obstructionist in the GOP were never going to support a bill. They are trying to recreate 1994 (Obama’s Waterloo) and had no interest whatsoever in working with the Dems in the Senate to bring forward a bill. Reid, Baucus and the President tried and tried and, quoting Steele in reverse, the gop flipped the bird at the American people, Obama and the Democrats. It is Christmas so I won’t say what I truly think about the gop.