Democrats now have the votes to pass the Senate version of national health care reform. Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson is on board after holding out for some language on abortion and likely some projects and cash to take home to Cornhuskers.
The plan provides immediate relief to children with pre-existing conditions and will do the same for adults in 2014.
All Americans are required to have insurance and there will be new taxes on existing high cost plans. Insurers will be allowed to offer products nationwide outside the realm of state regulators and insurers will be required to see that at least 80% of premiums go to patient care. Lots of panels, oversight and bureacracy to go along with the higher taxes. There is something called "market exchanges" instead of a "public option."
Two questions remain.
Can the Senate version pass in the more liberal House ? Surely the White House will push for it. Senator Nelson says if there are material changes in the conference report, he will vote against it.
Did the last minute horse trading result in a better bill or just more pork for Louisiana and Nebraska ?
Senator Nelson praised Majority Leader Harry Reid calling his work "historic."
"The lives of millions of Americans will be improved," said Senator Nelson.
Time will tell.
7 comments:
Where does Owen's stand?
Mr. Owens voted for the House version which contained the public option
When the Senate version comes back and a confernce bill is put together (pieces of each), where will old Wild Bill stand, one pondres with bated breath. (what the hell is bated breath anyway)?
These procedural delays are a insult to of us. Whether your a democrat, republican, independent, they are used as a method to prevent work from getting done.
Cmon folks, reading a 383 page bill out loud. What are we, in grade school? How many hours will this take? And who will listen to it?
Let the system work. Sometimes it will benefit you, sometimes me. Nobody gets everything they want all the time.
All of them should be removed. Good luck getting that done. Neither side will give that up.
There is nothing in the Cosntituion about needing a 3/5 majority to pass legislation. Abolish the filibuster and allow for an up an down vote on all legilsation. They passed the Bush tax cuts by a majority vote why can't they do it for health care?
Because the rules were set up to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Super majorities are common parts of the rules of all Legislative bodies.
But if you have 60 votes, you can override the filibuster. How does that protect us from the tyranny of the majority.
As far as I can tell, all it does is prevent one side from getting their job done while the other side looks like it's preventing tyranny from overtaking us all. Which it's not.
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