Senate approves health care bill

The New York Times:   "The Senate voted Thursday to reinvent the nation's health care system, passing a bill to guarantee access to health insurance for tens of millions of Americans and to rein in health costs as proposed by President Obama" (Pear, 12/24).

The Washington Post:  "Vice President Biden presided over the 60-39, party line vote. Thursday's vote -- which came on the first Senate session on Dec. 24 in more than five decades -- brings Democrats closer than ever to realizing their 70-year-old goal of universal health coverage. … Difficult issues must be still resolved in final negotiations with the House, which has passed more liberal health-care reform legislation, and those talks could stretch through January and perhaps into February, Democratic leaders said. But Democrats are increasingly confident that President Obama would sign a bill into law in early 2010" (Murray, 12/24).

Roll Call: "Convening on Christmas Eve for the first time since 1963 and casting Christmas Eve votes for the first time in 114 years, the Senate passed the $871 billion health care package with no Republican votes. The legislation proposes trimming Medicare by $462 billion over 10 years and mandates that all Americans purchase health insurance, but it would extend coverage to about 25 million uninsured and ban practices such as denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions" (Drucker, 12/24).