US healthcare reform

Senators voted 60-39 to formally debate Obama's top priority plan to extend healthcare coverage to some 31 million American uninsured and bar insurers from denying coverage to those with existing illnesses.

The House of Representatives had narrowly passed its own version on November 7. The Senate debate itself is expected to begin on November 30 and last at least three weeks. If passed, the Senate bill would be reconciled with the House version within a mediation committee in January before being forwarded to President Obama for signing.

If so, the legislation would reshape the 2.5 trillion dollar US healthcare system, which accounts for one-sixth of the US economy. Subsidies would be offered to help low-income earners.

Democrat holdouts seek amendments

To garner the minimum of 60 votes needed to initiate the Senate debate, Obama's center-left Democrats persuaded two of their wavering colleagues and two independents to accept debate. The holdouts, Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu, moderates from conservative southern US states, said they still wanted changes to the final legislation, including cost safeguards for small businesses.

"More work needs to be done," Landrieu said, "before I can support this effort." She also pressed for more funds for Medicaid, government health aid for the poor.

Senate Republicans vow tough debate

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said he would use whatever means he had to delay or block Obama's legislation as mid-term congressional elections approach in 2010.

Republicans say the package is a costly government intrusion into private lives and the commercial health sector.

But, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid compared the health reform initiative to historic US decisions opposing slavery and upholding rights for women voters. "We can see the finish line now, but we're not there yet."

White House says Obama grateful

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the "historic" Senate vote had moved the USA closer to ending "insurance company abuses" and reining in spiraling health costs. "The President looks forward to a thorough and productive debate," Gibbs said.

The United States ranks as one of the few industrialized democracies that does not provide health care coverage to all its citizens. Compared to Germany, France and Britain, the US health care spending per person is more than double and yet the USA lags behind other countries in life expectancy and infant mortality, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).


ipj/AFP/Reuters/dpa
Editor: Andreas Illmer