Where Healthcare Goes from Here

The Senate voted Saturday to send the healthcare reform bill to the floor for debate. But it is a long and twisty road to a final vote.

The vote was party line, and had the very limited purpose of simply saying, ok, let’s debate this thing.

The vote Saturday was simply to forestall a filibuster. In other words, it was a clear road to the floor of the Senate where it will be debated and or amended. And that’s where the problems begin.

For starters, some moderate Democrats who vote to allow debate, have stated they will not vote for it in its current form.

At issue is the so-called public option. Senators like Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Joe Lieberman have said they will vote no on final passage of the current bill.

Some liberal Democrats may bolt if the bill is weakened too much.

They would ideally support a single payer system like Medicare, which already covers more people than Canadian healthcare does.

Whatever form a final bill takes, and if it’s passed, then it must be merged with the house version, and the resulting compromise sent to the President.

But that compromise is at the end of a long road laced with political landmines.

Interestingly enough, despite the nailbiting Saturday, the so-called Clinton Healthcare bill in 1994, reached the floor with much greater ease, but died there after four weeks of debate.