In a 14-9 vote, the Senate Finance Committee approved its 10-year, $829 billion healthcare reform measure Tuesday afternoon. As expected, the panel voted along party lines with only Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) crossing over to join the Democrats for this vote.
The bill was the end of a long road toward reform—starting nearly two years ago, according to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). It ended up with the panel considering 135 amendments, 79 roll-call votes, and adopting 41 amendments earlier this month.
But for the most part, the bill failed to gain the bipartisan support that Baucus had been seeking. "We made a good faith effort," said Baucus near the end of the nearly five-hour session on Tuesday afternoon.
While Snowe voted with the Democrats this time, she was careful to point out during the session that "my vote today is my vote today"--and that it doesn't predict what her "vote will be tomorrow." She said that there "are many miles to go in this legislative journey."
The session provided insights on what can be anticipated in the upcoming weeks as the bill is melded with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions bill before bringing it to the Senate floor--possibly by the end of this month.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said that the public option "is necessary" and that he will introduce legislation on the floor if it is not included in the combined Senate bill. "Maybe things would be different if the word 'public' wasn't there," he said.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said he will continue to push for the employer mandate that was not included in the Finance bill. He also wanted to revisit the issue of taxing high-value or Cadillac plans.
For the most part, many of the Republicans on the panel expressed strong support for moving ahead with healthcare reform—but with a different focus. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said the legislation "did take a step in the right direction," but that other areas needed to be considered, such as medical liability reform and unfunded mandates for the states.
The report issued Monday by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) did come up several times—mostly by Democrats who expressed anger on the conclusions it raised that health insurance premiums could nearly double under the Finance Committee bill. "The insurance industry ought to be ashamed" for releasing the report, Kerry said.