Thread: Senate takes first votes on health care UPDATED 4:55

Senate takes first votes on health care

Editor's note: This item is being updated throughout the day below.

Three days after starting formal debate, the Senate has approved the first amendment to the $848 billion health care bill -- a measure that would expand preventative care for women.

On an 69-31 vote, the Senate approved an amendment to the legislation that would require insurance companies to cover certain procedures for women -- such as breast and cervical cancer screenings -- without charging co-payments.

The amendment was offered by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

After the vote, lawmakers moved to a competing amendment offered by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, that would prohibit government panels from determining which women's procedures would be covered.

The Senate's health care debate, which began Monday, has slowed to a crawl as Democrats and Republicans argue over the amendment process. Reid has said the Senate will work every weekend in December to finish a bill by the end of the year.

At 2:45 p.m., the Senate is scheduled to take up a more controversial amendment proposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to strip nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts Democrats have proposed to pay for other programs.

Update 12:34 p.m. ET. "Currently, more than half of American women report that they delay needed care due to cost," Mikulski said in a statement. "Under my amendment, we are saying good-bye to an era when simply being a woman is treated as a pre-existing condition."

Update 12:43 p.m. ET. Murkowski's amendment failed 59-41. The measure needed 60 votes to pass.

Update 3:30 p.m. ET. Senate lawmakers Thursday voted down a controversial amendment offered by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would have required Democrats to restore more than $400 billion in Medicare cuts proposed in the health care bill.

The proposal, which led to a days-long partisan battle over which party is a better steward of the seniors' health insurance program, was voted down 42-58. Had the proposal passed, the $848 billion health care bill would have been sent back to the Senate Finance Committee and lawmakers would have been required to find another way to pay for billions in new programs.

"The system is going to go broke in seven years," McCain said minutes before the vote. "Do the right thing for the seniors of this country."

The AARP, which has supported the health care legislation, weighed in with a letter on Wednesday arguing that savings could be found by routing out waste and abuse. Republicans, including McCain, have said that the cuts would reduce benefits to seniors -- particularly those enrolled in Medicare Advantage. That program allows private insurance companies to provide Medicare coverage.

"Our bill does nothing to reduce guaranteed Medicare benefits," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Posted by John Fritze at 03:05 PM/ET, December 03, 2009 in Health care

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/20 ... -care.html

All out in the open, LIVE on C SPAN right now.

Updated at 4:55 p.m. ET:

The Mikulski amendment on women's health care passed only with the help of three Republicans. Two of them were predictable: Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both moderates from Maine. The third? David Vitter of Louisiana, who acknowledged "a very serious sin" after his phone number appeared in the telephone records of an escort service run by the D.C. Madam.