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Brown: Health bill by Friday |
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Wednesday, 23 December 2009 |
By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
A legislator from Ohio says he is “99 percent sure” that President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul bill will clear the U.S. Senate by Christmas Day.
“I can’t imaging a scenario where the bill won’t pass by Christmas,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said Tuesday during a media teleconference. “It will pass at the latest by Christmas Eve.”
Senate Republicans have done all they could procedurally to slow the bill’s passage, instituting filibusters and other blocks to hinder the legislation’s final vote.
Senators have been voting at odd hours the last several days because Republicans have delayed the bill as much as they can. The Senate voted at 1 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning to shut down debates. The most recent vote passed by a 60-39 margin, the minimum required.
The final 60-vote hurdle to limit the debate on the bill itself is expected to be cleared by this afternoon, Brown said. Then, 30-hours after that vote, the final vote on the legislation is slated for Christmas Eve. Only a simple majority is needed for passage.
Brown said each cloture vote stops one of more than 100 filibusters and blocks erected by the Republicans. He noted the number of filibusters have been more than the first 50 years of filibuster existence.
The legislator said the moves are legal and that he had no problem with the blocks, but he noted the Republican’s procedures are hurting Americans.
“I take it personally that 390 Ohioans every day are losing their health insurance and that 1,000 Americans every week are dying because they don’t have health insurance,” Brown said. “They keep blocking and blocking and blocking and slowing and slowing this down.”
The extended debates have put many legislators’ family holidays on hold, and many are getting frustrated. Obama has put his Hawaii vacation on hold until the bill’s passage as well.
On Tuesday, Brown said he has no problem staying on Capitol Hill until the final vote is cast.
“Most Americans work on Christmas Eve and I should be no different,” Brown said. “Frankly, I don’t think we deserve the time with our families until this is finished.”
Brown also took the chance to reinforce the benefits that universal health care would bring.
He explained under in the current system, those with health insurance are paying a $1,000 hidden tax and pay more for their insurance to cover emergency room visits by the uninsured.
Health insurance premiums would also double in the next six years under the current system, he said.
Universal care would eliminate those drawbacks and provide benefits of their own, Brown said.
“People will no longer be turned away because of pre-existing condition exclusions,” Brown said. “Plus it gives small businesses tax incentives so they can cover their employees.”
Brown noted the plan also would lengthen medicare’s life an additional 10 years and would provide free annual checkups, mammograms and colonoscopies to medicare beneficiaries. The bill also calls for a reduction on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs.
If the bill passes by Christmas, Obama could sign the measure in January before his State of the Union address.
Before the president signs the bill, the Senate measure would still have to be harmonized with the health care bill passed by the House in November before final legislation would be forwarded to the president.
There are significant differences between the two bills, including stricter abortion language in the House bill, a new government-run insurance plan in the House bill that’s missing from the Senate version, and a tax on high-value insurance plans embraced by the Senate but strongly opposed by many House Democrats.
Senate moderates have served notice they won’t support a final deal if government-run insurance comes back. And Democratic abortion opponents in the House say a Senate compromise on the volatile issue is unacceptable.
But there’s considerable pressure on Democrats to avoid messy negotiations over a final bill. Public support for the legislation continues to sink in opinion polls.
The bills probably have more in common than differences. Each costs around $1 trillion over 10 years and installs new requirements for nearly all Americans to buy insurance, providing subsidies to help lower-income people to do so. They’re paid for by a combination of tax and fee increases and cuts in projected Medicare spending.
Unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with existing health conditions would be banned. Uninsured or self-employed Americans would have a new way to buy health insurance, via marketplaces called exchanges where private insurers would sell health plans required to meet certain minimum standards.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 December 2009 )
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