Senate & House Watch

On Thursday, Dec. 24 at 7 AM, the Senate passed its final health care bill by 60 to 39, along party lines, with Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), who is retiring at the end of this Congress, the only Senator not voting.

“Is there a chance to fix the bill during that final conference phase? We are certainly hopeful. Our grassroots are mobilized and already working to strip the dangerous language out of the final health reform bill.

Our energies will be focused on the sweeping anti-abortion provision because it would enshrine into the country’s first-ever comprehensive health care reform legislation the dangerous principle that women may be singled out for denial of legal health care.

We are not in the business of trying to ruin the prospects of health care reform. The bill’s elimination of gender rating and of denial of coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions are welcome (although we worry about enforcement of these provisions). On balance, however, this bill harms women. When a small group of men set out to determine what rights women can exercise over their own bodies, it’s sexism, not health care. NOW calls on Congress and President Obama to recognize women’s fundamental right to the full range of health care services, including abortion care.”

Terry O’Neill,  President of the National Organization for Women (NOW),
Dec. 24.

Now the House/Senate conference committee will begin its work to combine the Senate bill with the one passed on Nov. 7 in the House, with abortion coverage becoming one of the biggest challenges.

The final vote came to pass after marathon sessions and 24 days of floor debates and after the Democrats in the Senate approved on Dec. 21 the final, filibuster-proof version of its health care bill by 60 to 40 votes. This final version of the bill includes Ben Nelson’s sweeping anti-abortion language with an added Manager’s Amendment that was passed on Dec. 19, which comes very close to the Stupak-Amendment passed in the House.

“The so-called health care reform bill now before the Senate, with the addition of Majority Leader Harry Reid’s Manager’s Amendment, amounts to a health insurance bill for half the population and a sweeping anti-abortion law for the rest of us. And by the way, it’s the rest of us who voted the current leadership into both houses of Congress. The National Organization for Women is outraged that Senate leadership would cave in to Sen. Ben Nelson, offering a compromise that amounts to a Stupak-like ban on insurance coverage for abortion care. Right-wing ideologues like Nelson and the Catholic Bishops may not understand this, but abortion is health care. And health care reform is not true reform if it denies women coverage for the full range of reproductive health services. We call on all senators who consider themselves friends of women’s rights to reject the Manager’s Amendment, and if it remains, to defeat this cruelly over-compromised legislation.”

Terry O’Neill,  President of the National Organization for Women (NOW),
Dec. 19.

NEWS

• *NEW!* New York Times: “Abortion Foe Defies Party on Health Care Bill”, Front Page article about Bart Stupak (Jan. 7, 2010)

• *NEW!* Reuters: “Pelosi Says Congress Close to Health Deal” (Jan. 6, 2010)

• AP: “Democrats Will Bypass Conference Committee On Health Care Reform To Vote By February“

• NPR: “State Attorneys General Question Health Care Bill” (Dec. 24)

• The New York Times: “Health Care Changes Wouldn’t Have Big Effect for Many”

• President Obama’s statement after the Senate vote (Dec. 24)

• Jill Miller Zimon’s excellent wrapup of what’s in the bill and what will happen next, published in BlogHer (Dec. 24)

• The New York Times (Dec. 21): “Democrats Face Challenge in Merging Health Bills”
  

• FDL Action:  “Health Care Stocks Jump For LieberCare Joy”
  “From Oct. 27 to Friday’s market close: Coventry Health Care, Inc. is up 31.6 percent; CIGNA Corp. is up 29.1 percent; Aetna Inc. is up 27.1 percent;WellPoint, Inc. is up 26.6 percent;UnitedHealth Group Inc. is up 20.5 percent; Humana Inc. is up 13.6 percent.”

• The New York Times:  “Democrats Clinch a Deal on Health Bill”
  

• Associated Press: “Senate “Dems reach 60 vote threshold on health bill”

• President Obama reacts to the Senate Health Care bill (Dec. 19)

• Politico:  “Stupak aims to sink ‘unacceptable’ abortion compromise”

• The Washington Post’s The Fix Blog:  “Health care winners and losers?”

COMMENTARIES

• “A Right to Health Care”, editorial in The Forward, Dec. 30.

• “How Progressives Can Move Obama To the Left” by Cenk Uygur, The Huffington Post

• “Sander’s Deal Lays The Groundwork for National Health Care” by Susie Madrak, Crooks And Liars

• “Obama’s Game-Changing Win” by Eric Alterman, The Daily Beast

• “Missing Ted Kennedy: Health Care Reform Package Would Have Been So Different” (Dec. 24) by Steve Clemons, The Huffington Post

• “A Health-Care Victory That Stinks” by David S. Broder, The Washington Post

• “The Abortion Smokescreen” by Gloria Feldt, The Daily Beast

• The Women’s Media Center by Jen Nedeau: “Will Fundamental Rights or Fundamentalism Prevail in the Health Care Battle?

• RH Check by Jodi Jacobson:  “(VIDEO) Hippocratic Oath, Anyone? Apparently Tom Coburn Was Absent That Day”

• Op-Ed by Victoria Reggie Kennedy in the Washington Post:  “The moment Ted Kennedy would not want to lose” Quote:  “While my husband believed in a robust public option as an effective way to lower costs and increase competition, he also believed in not losing sight of the forest for the trees. As long as he wasn’t compromising his principles or values, he looked for a way forward.”

• The Huffington Post: “Senate Dems reach 60 vote threshold on health bill”

• The Huffington Post: “Axelrod Knocks Sen. Ben Nelson for Threatening Filibuster”

• The Huffington Post by Michelle Kraus: “Middle Aged White Guys Stuck Together in a Blizzard Get in Mischief”

• Newsweek’s The Gaggle Blog:  “Senate (Sort Of) Caves to Nelson’s Abortion Demands”

• The Hill:  “Chambliss: Abortion compromise ’sets up a Supreme Court challenge’”
  

• Pam’s House Blend:  “10 Reasons to Kill the Senate Health Care Bill”

RESOURCES

• TIMELINE: The Senate and the House pass their versions of the bill

• Consumer Reports: “Health-Care Reform: What Happens When?”

• Planned Parenthood: “Questions and Answers on the Nelson Abortion Check Provision”

• Read a transcript of a chat with Congressman Anthony Wiener from Dec. 22 about the healthcare reform debate (countdowntohealthcare.com)

• NARAL: “How Did Your Senator Vote?”

• Watch the Senate live on  C-Span

• Find resources and listen to press conferences on C-Span’s “Health Care Hub”