US healthcare overhaul a step closer

US SENATE Democrats cleared the second of three 60-vote hurdles on President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul yesterday, moving its version of the landmark legislation one step closer to passage before Christmas.

For a second straight day, Democrats mustered 60 party-line votes to cut off debate on the healthcare bill and move towards Senate passage over unanimous Republican opposition.

The last 60-vote hurdle will come today, with a vote to approve the bill — which requires a simple majority in the 100-seat chamber.

“The finish line is in sight,” Democratic senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, told reporters. “Now we know with certainty we have the will to cross it.”

The Senate also passed Democratic leader Harry Reid’s 383-page amendment making final changes to the measure, including striking a government-run insurance plan and tightening restrictions on using federal funds for abortions.

Those changes helped secure the 60th vote for Democrats on Obama’s top legislative priority, which would extend health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people and halt practices like refusing insurance to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The healthcare fight has consumed Congress for months, sparking intense political brawling and resulting in a gruelling schedule this week in which senators were summoned for votes after midnight and at daybreak.

“There is a lot of tension in the Senate,” Reid said after the votes. “Let’s just all try to get along. Let’s try to work through this.”

Once passed, the Senate bill must be melded with a version passed by the House of Representatives on November 7 in what promises to be difficult negotiations. Both chambers must approve it again before sending it to Obama for his signature.

Democrats hope to complete House-Senate negotiations and send the bill to Obama before his State of the Union message in late January, although deadlines for finishing the healthcare package have been missed repeatedly.

However, the negotiations face looming clashes on issues like the government-run plan, which is in the House bill but not the Senate, abortion, and competing approaches on how to pay for the changes.

“This is not over yet,” said Republican senator John Thune.

Republican critics say the measure is an expensive and heavy-handed intrusion into the healthcare sector that will drive up costs, increase the budget deficit and reduce patients’ choices.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate bill will cut the federal deficit by $132 billion over 10 years, but critics argue the revenue increases and cost savings the bill calls for may never materialise.

Republicans also attacked special deals in the bill for Democratic senators like Ben Nelson, who backed it after winning extra money for his home state of Nebraska, and Chris Dodd, who faces a tough re-election fight in Connecticut and won money for a medical centre there.

“This bill is a mess, and so was the process that was used to get it over the finish line,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said. “Americans are outraged by the last-minute, closed-door, sweetheart deals made to gain the slimmest margin for passage.”