Just 14 hours after the House passed landmark health insurance reform legislation, President Barack Obama was exhorting the Senate to “take up the baton and bring this effort to the finish line”.
The President’s statement on Sunday came against the backdrop of the very slender margin on which the House passed the landmark health insurance reform legislation– a $1.1 trillion plan over 10 years and which extends coverage to 36 million uninsured Americans. The bill passed with two votes to spare, including one Republican vote and some 39 Democrats voting against it.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s health insurance reform proposals differ substantially from the House’s plan, that passed last Saturday. Two major differences relate to government run insurance plan and how to pay for the coverage.
Notwithstanding the exuberance by the Obama and his Administration, the Democrats are fully aware that they face an uphill battle in getting comprehensive health insurance legislation passed by the Senate.
Even as Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, (D-Nevada), struggles to hold on to all 58 Democrats and two independents in his caucus, President Obama would like to sign off on a bill by year’s end. However, mindful of the major challenges being faced, Reid would only say that his intention is to bring the bill to the floor “as quickly as possible”.
One senator has already made his position very clear and that is Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, once a Democrat, now turned Independent, who has said he would filibuster any plan which contains a public option.
Apart from turning around the US economy, largely based on job creation, perhaps Obama’s second biggest test would be the passage of comprehensive health insurance reform legislation that covers millions of uninsured Americans and reigns in of out-of-control private insurance companies.
