Majority Leader still aims to bring health bill to Senate floor next week

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid continues to aim to get a health care reform bill to the floor next week, his spokeswoman said Friday, MarketWatch reports. "No date has been set to bring the bill to the floor for debate, she said, adding that Reid wants to bring it up 'as soon as we can.'" In the meantime, Health Care for America Now has begun running ads urging Senators in Arkansas and Nebraska to let senators begin debate on the bill. "Sens. Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, and Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, haven't yet agreed to let the bill come up for debate" (Schroeder, 11/13).

Politico reports that Democrats are likely to kill the anti-abortion Stupak amendment that was attached to the House health care reform bill "if they go to Plan B on passing health care — using a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill — budget experts say." Democrats would likely only use reconciliation if they fail to get close to the 60 votes they need to pass a health care reform bill. Using reconciliation "would require a bare majority but limit the scope of what policies can be adopted" (Frates, 11/13).

 

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.