Obama health bill set for vote Thursday

WASHINGTON -- Well on the way to winning passage before Christmas after clearing its biggest hurdle in the wee hours of the morning, the Senate's health care bill will make a "tremendous difference for families, for seniors, for businesses and for the country as a whole," President Barack Obama said Monday.

Senate Democratic leaders looked ahead to the next make-or-break vote this morning for the legislation that will insure 30 million more Americans.

"I don't know if there's a senator that doesn't have something in this bill that was important to them, and if they don't have something in it important to them, then it doesn't speak well of them," retorted Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., when questioned at a news conference about GOP criticism of the bill.

The deals in the massive bill range from $100 million to pay the full cost of a Medicaid expansion in Nebraska, home to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson, the crucial 60th vote for the bill, to exempting roughly 800,000 seniors in Florida from potential benefit cuts by private Medicare Advantage plans, something sought by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Democrats prevailed 60-40 over Republican opposition early Monday, voting to block a threatened GOP filibuster of a last-minute package of Democratic amendments.

Democrats will have to put up 60 votes again this morning for a procedural vote on Reid's underlying, 2,074-page bill. A last 60-vote hurdle awaits Wednesday, and final passage of the legislation -- requiring a simple majority -- is set for late Thursday if Republicans take all the available time. As of Monday they said they would.

"I am willing to stay here. The flight that I have is Christmas morning, and I don't plan on changing that reservation," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told reporters after a meeting of GOP senators. "We potentially are getting ready to pass a bill that there's no question in my mind is going to lead to huge deficits down the road."

Republicans denounced the last-minute concessions that put the bill over the top.

"I am tired of the Congress thumbing their nose and flipping a bird to the American people," Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said in a conference call with reporters.

The Senate measure would still have to be harmonized with the health care bill passed by the House in November before final legislation would go to Obama.

There are significant differences between the two measures, including stricter abortion language in the House bill, a new government-run insurance plan in the House bill that's missing from the Senate version, and a tax on high-value insurance plans embraced by the Senate but opposed by many House Democrats.

But the bills have much in common. Each costs around $1 trillion over 10 years and installs new requirements for nearly all Americans to buy insurance, providing subsidies to help lower-income people do so. They're paid for by a combination of tax and fee increases and cuts in projected Medicare spending.