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Votes on health care bill likely today

Deluge of amendments expected in Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., right, and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., speak to members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Associated Press)
Shailagh Murray And Lori Montgomery Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Senators prepared to cast their first votes today on health care reform, but even as partisan divisions hardened and contentious amendments stacked up, Democrats increasingly expressed optimism that they would succeed in passing a bill before Christmas.

The initial amendments offered illustrated the legislation’s vast scope and lingering vulnerabilities.

The first, co-sponsored by Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, would increase preventative health care for women at a 10-year cost of $940 million. One aim of the measure is to blunt concerns raised last month when an independent commission recommended that women undergo mammograms less frequently.

The second amendment, authored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would strip out the bill’s primary revenue source, nearly $500 billion in Medicare cost savings. Although AARP and other seniors’ groups have argued otherwise, Republicans are attacking the cuts as a threat to current benefits that could eventually shorten lives.

Other flashpoints expected to reach the floor in the form of amendments would target provisions in the bill related to abortion and illegal immigrants. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said debate could continue through the weekend.

“I want people to feel that they’ve had an opportunity to understand the bill, offer whatever amendments they think will improve it,” he told reporters Tuesday.

Republicans are targeting key sections of the bill, including the nearly $400 billion in tax increases that would finance the legislation’s 10-year, $848 billion cost. GOP lawmakers also are expected to propose significant changes to medical malpractice laws.

To manage the expected deluge of Democratic amendments, Reid and other leaders are urging their colleagues to focus only on their top priorities for floor consideration.

One pending proposal would increase federal funding for residency training to relieve the cost burden on large teaching hospitals in states like Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York. Sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the measure would provide $2 billion in additional funding over 10 years to create an extra 2,000 residency slots nationwide.

Another group of Senate Democrats, including Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Robert P. Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, is pushing improvements to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. And a group of moderates, including Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Mark Warner of Virginia, is crafting language to strengthen cost-cutting programs.

Centrist Democrats, who are likely to decide the fate of the bill, appeared to be reassured by a Congressional Budget Office report released Monday refuting insurance industry claims that the Senate bill would add thousands of dollars to the average family’s insurance bill. The CBO found that Reid’s package would leave premiums unchanged or slightly lower for the vast majority of Americans who get coverage through their jobs.