USA: Senate passes healthcare reform bill

President Obama’s signature policy reaches the next stage.

The bill aims to cover 31m uninsured Americans and could lead to the biggest change in US healthcare in decades, BBC News Online reports. President Barack Obama welcomed it as offering ‘real and meaningful’ reform, saying it was the most important piece of social legislation since the 1930s.

However, the bill must still be reconciled with more expansive legislation passed by the House of Representatives. The process of reconciling the two bills is expected to begin in January and will require further tough negotiations. Once that has been done, Mr Obama will be able to sign the measure into law.

The Senate bill was adopted by 60 votes to 39, with senators voting along party lines. Fifty-eight Democrats and two independents backed the legislation, while Republicans voted unanimously against it.

Healthcare reform has dominated American politics all year. Even many of the presidents’ own Democratic party were unsure about the bill, its cost and its implications. The bill’s passage in an early morning vote on Christmas Eve follows months of political wrangling and 24 days of debate in the Senate chamber. Opposition Republicans say the legislation is expensive, authoritarian and a threat to civil liberties and accuse the Democrats of rushing it through.

Under the Senate bill, most Americans would have to have health insurance. Private insurers would be banned from refusing to provide insurance because applicants had pre-existing medical conditions. The House version, passed in November, still includes a public option and also differs on how to pay for the reform.

Under the House version of the bill, health care plans could choose whether to cover abortion, but the public plan would not provide abortion coverage. The Senate version sets limits on the use of public money for abortion services.

US healthcare bills: House v Senate. BBC News Online, 24 December 2009

US Senate passes landmark healthcare reform bill. BBC News Online, 24 December 2009