Senate health bill passes major test

Senate Democrats cleared their 60-vote margin to cut off the health care debate early Monday morning, with hopes of casting a vote for final passage of their legislation on Christmas Eve.

The vote, held shortly after 1 a.m. Monday, was the most significant procedural hurdle Democratic leaders faced on President Obama’s top legislative priority. Democrats predicted on Saturday they would have enough support, but pumped fists and shook hands as the 60-40 tally, divided along party lines, was announced.

Democrats said the successful first vote all but assures final passage.

“The die is cast,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “It’s done.”

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Many Democrats said ahead of the vote that the legislation isn’t perfect — some wanted the public insurance plan; others wanted more cost-cutting measures, for instance — but they unified to move along with their hopes of providing insurance coverage to millions of more Americans.

“Today, the Senate took another historic step toward our goal of delivering access to quality, affordable health care to all Americans,” Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said after the vote.

On hand for the vote was Victoria Reggie Kennedy, whose late husband, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, was one of the Senate’s chief reform proponents, as well as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and health “czar” Nancy-Ann DeParle.

Both supporters and opponents called the vote one of the most historic in recent Senate history. Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called it a “pivotal point in the decades-long request to pass comprehensive health care reform.”

“We reached a crossroads, a point in time just like this Senate did in 1935 when we passed Social Security or in 1965 when we passed the Medicare bill,” he said on the Senate floor shortly before the vote. “Each of those bills was a giant step forward for the American people.”

Republicans opposed the legislation all along over concern that it would raise taxes and insurance premiums, cut Medicare funding and put the government between doctors and patients. They had hoped to block or stall the vote, but ran out of procedural options in the closing days.

“History in our future generations will judge us on this vote,” warned Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, on the Senate floor. He labeled the vote as one “that will fundamentally change the American landscape for generations to come and restructure one-sixth of our American economy. A vote that will determine if we give our future generations the same opportunities and the same set of pride that has been our privilege. Make no mistake, our actions on this vote will not be without consequences.”

The legislation would extend coverage to 31 million new Americans, try to stop insurance company abuses, give low- and middle-income Americans tax credits to help them buy coverage and establish an independent board to keep Medicare solvent.

In the search for compromise to reach 60 votes, the bill doesn’t have the public insurance plan or the Medicare expansion for which Democrats had been hoping.

More procedural votes are planned for Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon, but Democrats are expected to hang on to their supermajority. The vote for final passage, expected at about 7 p.m. Christmas Eve, will require only 51 votes.

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