Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, announced to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas.
"We're there," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), as he headed into a special meeting to outline the deal.
Democratic leaders spent days trying to hammer out a deal with Nelson, and worked late Friday night with him on abortion coverage language that had proved the major stumbling block. Nelson also secured other favors for his home state.
Under the new abortion provisions, states can opt out of allowing plans to cover abortion in insurance exchanges the bill would set up to serve individuals who don't have employer coverage. Plus, enrollees in plans that do cover abortion procedures would pay for the coverage with separate checks - one for abortion, one for rest of health-care services.
Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. He won concessions for qualifying nonprofit insurers and for Medigap providers from a new insurance tax. He also was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts.
"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree," Nelson told reporters at the Capitol, of the many changes made at his behest. "But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions."
The Democrats are going to take over 1/6th of the U.S. economy without a single Republican vote. To all of those who thought it was better to sit out the election in protest against Republicans who didn't do every little thing they asked for, congratulations. Elections matter and sitting them out matters too.
Ben Nelson also committed political suicide. His state is solidly against this health care bill and after they start paying the higher taxes without any of the benefits, which will occur before the 2012 election, Nelson will be summarily thrown out of the Senate.
Nelson stated earlier that his goal was to prevent federal funding for abortion. This change does not do that. It only allows states to opt out of the abortion coverage. In those states that do not opt out abortion will be covered with federal dollars. More on that here.
Perhaps Nebraska babies won't be killed with federal dollars, but that won't be true in New York or Massachusetts.
There's not a chance that any of the liberals will refuse to vote for this because of abortion restrictions or a lack of a public option. They'll all vote for it and Harry Reid will have his 60 votes.
Get ready for higher taxes and poorer health care. It's pretty much a sure thing now.
The GOP can only hope to delay the vote now. If they can somehow mess up Reid's schedule so the vote is pushed past the Christmas break there's still a chance the voters back home can pound some sense into their Senator's thick skulls. It's time to read every amendment, read the bill, read the phone book if that's what it takes. There must be no vote before Christmas.
There's not a chance that any of the liberals will refuse to vote for this because of abortion restrictions or a lack of a public option. They'll all vote for it and Harry Reid will have his 60 votes.
Get ready for higher taxes and poorer health care. It's pretty much a sure thing now.
The GOP can only hope to delay the vote now. If they can somehow mess up Reid's schedule so the vote is pushed past the Christmas break there's still a chance the voters back home can pound some sense into their Senator's thick skulls. It's time to read every amendment, read the bill, read the phone book if that's what it takes. There must be no vote before Christmas.
And for those who are now suddenly motivated to vote in 2010 thinking a GOP majority can fix this, can you name any federal entitlement program that was later undone?
You have to get it right the first time.
At this point the only hope may be that Santa brings a Dem Senator a blocked artery for Christmas.
Posts
6 comments:
Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage
Will the voters of Nebraska hold that against him?
Next election will tell.
Sen. Ben Nelson Gets His 30 Pieces of Silver
Who did he turn over to be killed?
Who did Nelson turn over to be killed? That would be you, Lew; and every other American who tries to access the "new and improved" American health care system.
You see, those Americans who favour this so-called health care reform bill thinks now everyone in America will have what amounts to a PPO health care insurance policy. In reality we will all have what amounts to Medi-Cal and Medicaid. Those of us who stick it out at our crummy jobs to keep our high quality health care benefits will be joining the ranks of the poor. And the poor DO have access to health care through government programmes...that's what Medical and Medicaid are about; and those same poor people complain bitterly about the lack of quality. Now we're all going share in that misery.
Do you know in Japan's socialised health care system, children under the age of 12 years are NOT allowed to get organ transplants? Too expensive compared to the worth of the child...the government hasn't invested enough money in the child's education to warrant the expenditure. That's going to happen to us now. Do you know that Japan, so famous for it's technology, is 20 years behind America in medicine? Welcome to socialised medicine.
Fools.
I have family that are at the mercy of the National Health Service in the UK. They say it's "disastrous." They ought to know. It takes 2 years and HOURS waiting in line just to see a dentist in the UK. Yeah, there's access to health care, but you'll die waiting for it.
And you're right, Rick, about those conservatives who sat out the last election like a brat throwing a temper tantrum; a lot of good that did.
God help us.
@Nightingale (everyone, really): So then places like St. Jude Children's Hospital won't survive without independent funding/donations? Am I right?
Is there a "St. Jude's" type hospital in the UK?
No.
In Japan?
No.
And if this "compassionate" government keeps squeezing the American public with higher taxes, higher energy costs, higher food costs, donations like those to St. Jude's will be a thing of the past. Kind of like Lehman Brothers; who would have thought they'd be gone?
Besides, if children below a certain age get a catastrophic illness in this new world order, they will be ushered into the next life, as this one will be deemed too expensive to maintain.
If the nightingales could sing like you
They'd sing much sweeter than they do
For you brought a new kind of love to me
If the sandman brought me dreams of you
I'd want to sleep my whole life through
For you brought a new kind of love to me
I know that I'm the slave, you're the queen
But still you can understand
That underneath it all you're a maid
And I am only a man
I would work and slave the whole day through
If I could hurry home to you
For you brought a new kind of love to me
If people weren’t pissed enough at the power-drunk Dems before, they likely are now…
These tools like Nelson will soon regret the day they did this for Obama, he’ll pull all them right-over the abyss with him… and then watch the coming GOP majority rescind it anyway-
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
Post a Comment