As expected, a little after 1am this morning, the Senate voted 60-40 on party lines to advance a revised health care reform bill introduced Saturday morning by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
All 58 Democrats and 2 independents voted to approve the first of three crucial procedural motions the Senate will consider before moving to a vote on final passage of the bill.
This afternoon, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis of the manager’s amendment that Senator Reid filed this morning.
Roughly 31 million Americans would receive coverage under the legislation.
CBO said that the final legislation, will cost $871 billion over the next 10 years and reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the same period.
This morning, Senator Reid introduced a manager’s amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The 383 page manager’s amendment includes the deals and compromises needed to secure 60 votes on final passage, with many of the provisions targeted to satisfy the demands of individual senators.
Senator Ben Nelson (NE), the final Democratic holdout on health care, announced this morning that he will support the Senate health care reform bill.
As a result of C3’s advocacy efforts, $15 million for a new peer reviewed cancer research program is included in the final Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill.
The program will research cancers, like colorectal cancer, that are not addressed in the breast, prostate, lung and ovarian cancer research programs run by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC). In addition to colorectal cancer research, the funds will be used to conduct research in the following areas: melanoma and other skin cancers, pediatric brain tumors within the field of childhood cancer research, genetic cancer research and genomic medicine, kidney cancer, blood cancer, Listeria Vaccine for infectious disease and cancer, and radiation protection utilizing nanotechnology.
The $15 million in funding for this new cancer research program was included at the request of Representatives Kay Granger (R-TX) and Jim Moran (D-VA).
UPDATE DEC 19, 2009: Your calls made the difference! The Brown-Hutchison clinical trials provision is included in the Manager’s amendment.
The Senate is rushing to get 60 votes to wrap up a health care reform bill before the end of the year.
However, the Senate health care reform bill does not currently ensure patients coverage for the costs of routine care in clinical trials like they would if care were provided outside of a trial. You can help change this!
Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) have introduced an amendment that would prohibit insurers from dropping coverage because an individual chooses to participate in a clinical trial and it would require insurers to cover the costs of routine care for patients enrolled in clinical trials. It also ensures that states that have stricter clinical trials coverage rules will not have those rules pre-empted by new federal legislation.
Call Senate Majority Leader Reid at (202) 225-3452 today and tell him to include the Brown-Hutchison clinical trials amendment in the manager’s amendment he is writing.
You can help ensure that the Senate doesn’t rush to pass a health care reform bill without protecting clinical trials coverage!
Read on for talking points you can use during your call.
Together we are Strong
