Thread: Saturday night set for initial health care vote UPDATE

Saturday night set for initial health care vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate will hold its first vote on health care legislation on Saturday night and Democrats will need 60 votes to prevail.

Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the schedule on the Senate floor, one day after unveiling a nearly $1 trillion bill to expand health coverage.

BACKGROUND: Senate finally has health reform bill

Republicans have vowed to block passage of the measure, and Democrats must put up 60 votes to clear the way for a lengthy debate next month.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... nate_N.htm

Why a Saturday night? This is what they pulled last time. Is it for security reasons? Maybe they are afraid that if this damn bill is passed there could be some angry people waiting for them to come out of the building. And it would be easier for police and security guards to spot a group of angry citizens because it would be during non-working hours.

Why Saturday? Because the "sneaky" Reid and Dems will be able to pass every thing they want in the "hidden health care sham bill" including coverage for illegal immigrants, public option, abortion, you name it, it will be in their Saturday night special bill... we have to push major calls tomorrow and ALL day Saturday to put a FINAL END TO THIS BILL!!!!!!!!

Because on weekends people are too busy with their personal lives to pay attention, and those who wish to protest cannot because the Senate switchboard is not in operation. (I think - no way to "shut it down" as was done in protesting amnesty legislation.)

BUT THIS DOES NOT PREVENT US FROM CALLING OUR SENATORS TOMORROW AND REQUESTING THAT THEY VOTE "NO" ON THE "'MOTION TO PROCEED" ON THIS BILL!!!!

I think the vote will be live on C-SPAN on TV like most of their votes.

You can post comments on the USA TODAY site at this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... nate_N.htm

Health care's 'public option' would cover little of population

By John Fritze, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A proposed government-run health insurance program, among the most divisive issues in the health care debate, would cover less than 1.5% of the population, new estimates show.

The latest version of the "public option," included in the 10-year, $848 billion health care bill headed toward an initial Senate vote Saturday, would cover up to 4 million people, according to the Congressional Budget Office report released late Wednesday night.

The issue remains among those that have prevented Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from securing the 60 votes he needs to pass the bill.

Paul Ginsburg, an economist with the Center for Studying Health System Change, questions the impact the public option proposals would have on families seeking health coverage.

"The type of public option we're talking about today … is all about ideology and symbolism," he said. "It's not going to have any impact on our health system."

SIDE-BY-SIDE: Comparing the House and Senate health bills

Reid, D-Nev., scheduled a weekend vote to determine whether the Senate will begin debate on its health care plan, which includes a public insurance program that individual states could choose not to offer residents.

The public plan was conceived as a separate insurance policy that would operate like Medicare, the government-run health program for seniors. President Obama has said a public option would "keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable."

Under the House and Senate bills, the government option would be available only to people who shop for insurance on their own — meaning they don't get coverage through work — or who work for small firms. The plan would be offered alongside private policies in online "exchanges" that would let people compare coverage and prices.

Like private insurers, the public plan's funding would come from premiums, but Republicans and some Democrats, including Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, say its non-profit status would give it an unfair advantage. "A government plan is eventually going to crowd out the private insurance companies' plans," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

The public plan included in the House bill would cover 6 million people, the Congressional Budget Office predicted. The analysis predicted that the public plan would attract less healthy patients and that its average premiums would be "somewhat higher" than private plans.

The Senate bill would let states opt out of the public plan. States that are home to one-third of the population would be likely to do so, the CBO predicts.

Jacob Hacker, a Yale University political scientist who first proposed the public option, said the plan would still drive down health care costs despite the changes. For one thing, he said, it would offer consumers another choice in rural parts of the country where only one or two insurers offer policies.

Insurance companies oppose the program. Karen Ignagni, head of the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, says the public plan would underpay doctors, forcing them to shift the cost to patients with private coverage.

Under pressure from fellow Democrats, Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reduced the plan's power. Unlike Medicare, which decides how much to pay doctors for services, the public plan would negotiate with doctors as private insurers do.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... tion_N.htm

The shiftier a plan is the later at night, and on the weekend it is voted on. I guess they figure it's the best chance of getting it passed. What a bunch of friggin' losers.

It appears that this vote is only whether they should start the debate on the health care plan, not on the actual plan.

Reid, D-Nev., scheduled a weekend vote to determine whether the Senate will begin debate on its health care plan.

If A Senator Votes for Cloture, She is Voting to Pass Health Care

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)

Friday, November 20th at 1:00AM EST

There is a study out today that is damaging to the Democrats efforts to pass health care in the Senate.

On Saturday, when constituents cannot contact their Senators’ offices because they’ll be closed, the United States Senate will vote on a cloture motion to debate the health care legislation.

This is important — a vote in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed (a parliamentary issue) is, in effect, a vote for the health care legislation. Why? Because Harry Reid has enough votes to pass the health care legislation by a simple majority, but he does not have the 60 votes necessary to proceed to debate, any Senator voting for cloture is voting for the health care plan.

Roll Call reports that according to the Congressional Research Service, “[a] study of Senate voting patterns shows the chamber has approved more than 97 percent of all bills subject to a cloture motion to begin debate — a finding that could undercut Democratic efforts to paint a key health care vote on Saturday as procedural.â€