Today the Senate passed a cloture motion which allows it to proceed to S. 1955 (Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005). The roll call vote was 96 yeas, two nays, and two not voting.
Using the glossary on the Senate’s website I found this defination of cloture:
The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and therby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by a vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.
I assume there was a Senator so opposed to the bill he or she choose to slow down the process with a filibuster and the rest of the Senate decided it wanted to vote on S. 1955 thus it passed the cloture motion. It might also be there was no filibuster and the Senate simply wanted to limit debate on the bill.
The Senate will resume debate on S. 1955 Wednesday morning and some interesting things may occur. C-SPAN 2 broadcasts Senate activities but I was late tuning in so I did not hear all the comments. I did hear someone say several Senators had concerns about the bill and would offer amendments to address those concerns.
Personally, I think at least some of the delay is due to constituents contacting their Senators to tell them to vote no on S. 1955. Many C3 advocates used the One Minute Advocate to make this contact as well as urging family and friends to do the same. Since it looks like a vote on S. 1955 will occur tomorrow (Wednesday, May 10) there is still time to contact your Senators. You can do it by going to the Save Our Colonoscopies page in the One Minute Advocate Action Center.
Last year the Arkansas General Assembly passed and the Governor signed The Colorectal Cancer Act of 2005 which requires companies selling health insurance in Arkansas to provide coverange for colorectal screening procedures. I spoke in favor of the bill at a hearing held by the Arkansas House Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Commitee as did the American Cancer Society. The surprise voice in favor was a representative of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the largest health insurance provider in Arkansas.
This is an example of C3 advocates working with other organizations to ensure coverage of screening through state-level mandates. These efforts are paying off — the colorectal cancer death rate is dropping as screening rates increase. S. 1955 would exempt association health plans from state supervision thus the plans would not be required to follow the state mandates. This is a step in the wrong direction and will cost both lives and money in the long run.
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