Senate opens health-reform debate

Jim Frederick
DrugStoreNews.com
Nov 30, 2009

WASHINGTON (Nov. 30) After months of wrangling in committee meetings and weeks spent rounding up support from his Democratic colleagues, Senate majority leader Harry Reid this morning gaveled the opening round of what is expected to be weeks of debate on a massive health-reform bill.

Reid was successful last week in rounding up a 60-vote majority to allow the legislation to come before the full Senate for debate. But the bill faces a tough battle in a bitterly partisan fight that could push any chance of passage into next year.

The Reid bill would overhaul the U.S. health system by providing coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, mandating that all Americans have coverage, creating a publicly funded insurance option to compete with private insurance plans and setting up new incentives and processes to promote healthier lifestyles and disease prevention. To help defray the expected cost of the overhaul — estimated to be $848 billion over 10 years — the Senate bill would levy a tax on the highest-value insurance plans dispensed by employers, and create a review system to seek out the most cost-effective treatments and reduce waste and unneeded medical procedures in government-funded health programs.

Republicans are almost unanimously opposed to many of the health-reform measures proposed in the Reid bill. Debate is likely to center on hot-button issues like federal funding for abortions, the public insurance plan option and the taxation of premium health plans.