WASHINGTON – The Senate Finance Committee passed its long-awaited healthcare reform bill Tuesday afternoon by a vote of 14-9.
"America's Healthy Future Act of 2009" was passed primarily along party lines, with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) joining the Democratic majority.
The Snowe vote gives the bill a modicum of bipartisan support, though President Barack Obama had hoped for more Republican support.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced the bill Sept. 16, and it subsequently underwent 150 revisions and heated debate. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of the revised bill at $829 billion.
According to the CBO, the bill would:
- Establish a mandate for most legal residents of the United States to obtain health insurance;
- Set up insurance "exchanges," through which individuals and families could receive federal subsidies to substantially reduce the cost of purchasing that coverage;
- Significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid;
- Substantially reduce the growth of Medicare's payment rates for most services (relative to the growth rates projected under current law); and
- Impose an excise tax on insurance plans with relatively high premiums.
Baucus was part of a bipartisan group of six senators who had worked over the past few months to design a bill that might gain support from Republicans. The bill left out the most contentious aspect of the Democrats' plan – a public health option. House Democrats, who passed their bill this summer, have said a public option is "non-negotiable."
The Senate Finance Committee voted on Oct. 2 to reject a public health option and instead support a provision to allow non-profit organizations called "co-ops" to provide coverage options for the uninsured.
Reform advocates have criticized Baucus for receiving the most funding from pharmaceutical companies and health insurance plans. Health insurance plans are opposed to a public option, claiming it would threaten their business model. Supporters of a public option say it will keep health plans "honest."
Before the Senate Finance Committee bill can move on for a full Senate vote, it must first be combined with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee's Affordable Health Choices Act, passed July 16. Observers expect similar wrangling over the combining of the Senate bills as preceded the passage of the Senate Finance bill.
President Obama has set a goal of passing health reform by the end of 2009.
At the passage of the Senate Finance bill Tuesday, America's Health Insurance Plans President and CEO Karen Ignagni said AHIP supports comprehensive health reform.
"Health plans have proposed guaranteed coverage, elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and no longer basing premiums on health status or gender," Ignagni said. "Experience in the states has shown that market reforms need to paired with universal coverage to make healthcare as affordable as possible."
"While we agree with the objective of the current proposal, we are concerned about its workability and cost," she added. "The bill imposes hundreds of billions of dollars in new healthcare taxes and provides an incentive for people to wait until they are sick to purchase coverage."
