A Key Senate Vote On Health Care Set For Tuesday

NU Online News Service, Nov. 11, 3:32 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON–Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has set the stage for a key vote on the Senate version of health care reform legislation on Tuesday, a move indicating he is likely to unveil the bill Monday.

Sen. Reid has delayed revealing the draft until the Congressional Budget Office finishes calculating its cost, hopefully by Friday.

Senate Democrats want the cost of the bill to be no more than $900 billion over 10 years.

The House bill, passed 220-215 late Saturday, is projected by the CBO to cost $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

At the same time, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., House majority leader, said today the House could be in session until nearly Christmas Eve to try to win final passage of a health care delivery system reform bill–and deliver a victory for President Obama.

Ira Loss, a health care analyst at Washington Analysis, said Sen. Reid is likely to get the 60 votes he needs to proceed with floor action Tuesday, after Republicans object to the motion, forcing a vote the next day on the motion to proceed.

Floor debate and amendments to the bill would follow, Mr. Loss said.

But, the key vote on cloture is unlikely to occur for several weeks.

He said he expects the bill to be introduced by Sen. Reid to include provisions creating a so-called "public option" with a state-by-state opt-out.

But, he said, that is unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed for passage. What will happen then, he said, is that the public option will be deleted and the bill will win enough votes to pass.

He noted that it already contains language creating state-based cooperatives.

As for hopes that action on the bill will be completed this year, he said he doubted that will happen. His team believes that final passage is unlikely to occur until the first quarter of next year, he said.