Lincoln votes to open debate on Senate health care bill (Updated)
by November 21, 2009 6:08 pm 47 views
U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said Saturday (Nov. 21) she will would vote to open debate on the U.S. Senate’s version of health care legislation expected to cost about $1 trillion over a decade.
Updated info: The U.S. Senate voted to open debate on its version of health care legislation with a 60-39 vote. All Democrats voted for it, and all Republicans voted against. Debate is expected to begin following the Senate’s Thanksgiving break.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved its version earlier in November on a 220-215 vote.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said his bill would cut the deficit by $130 billion, extend medical coverage to 94% of Americans and insure about 31 million uninsured Americans. Link here for a Heritage Foundation report that opposes the Reid plan.
Lincoln said in a statement released Saturday afternoon that she expects the Senate bill to “undergo significant change” in the near future, and her vote to allow debate should not be interpreted as support for whatever Senate legislation emerges. In fact, Lincoln said she would not support a bill that includes a government run public option.
“Rather than create an entirely new government-run health care plan to compete with private insurers. I support health insurance reform that focuses on changing the rules of our existing employer-based private health insurance system,” Lincoln said in the statement. “I believe we should change the current rules that permit insurance companies to bully their customers and cherry pick healthy patients, so we can force them to compete with each other.”
Lincoln and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., were considered the last holdouts in Reid’s effort to get a 60-vote margin to push the health care bill to debate in the Senate. Landrieu received a $100 federal allocation to support Medicaid funding in Louisiana prior to agreeing to vote for debate on the bill. There were no published reports that Lincoln was granted in favors for Arkansas with her vote.