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“Americans making more than that, up to $88,000 per family would get tax credits to help them afford private insurance. The lower your income, the more you'd get. Credits would be worth anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands. But those who don't purchase insurance, even with those incentives, will face fines." (CBS)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes he has the votes needed to bring health care legislation to the Senate floor for debate. The bill aims to extend coverage to 31 million Americans.
We bring you perspectives from ABC News, CNN, KTHV and MSNBC.
The Congressional Budget office estimates the cost of the bill will be $849 billion over ten years. On CNN, Republican Strategist Alex Castellanos explains that the cost may be higher than the budget projection.
“This is still a bil - nearly a trillion - dollar package. We don’t know if this is going to include the 200 million, billion, dollars that they’re going to give the doctors for our Medicare fees. So, now we’re still talking around a trillion dollars. And the American people have a big concern here. They don’t understand how something that is going to cost a lot more is going to save them a lot of money in a country that is already broke.”
On MSNBC’s Morning Meeting, Former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer offered a slightly different take. He says getting the required 60 votes will force Reid to compromise on the cost.
“Harry Reid will cut any deal to get to the 60. This is the initiation point. This is fire to the starting gun. And then they will duty serious bargaining, and then the House and the Senate gets together months to go. So whatever you want on Saturday, you can have. Either way, because he says this isn’t really what matters, I have to get the vote.”
ABC News takes this view further, saying Reid is including rewards for the moderate Democratic Senators in order to get the bill passed by the end of 2009.
“The Senator in question is Mary Landrieu, the state: Louisiana. She’s a Democrat, a moderate; she’s been very critical of the bill. But in this bill on page 432, is a provision dedicated to those states that in the last seven years have had major disaster declarations. Then it goes further to narrow it down just to Louisiana I am told, and it offers about a hundred million dollars in additional Medicaid subsidies for the state.”
In neighboring Arkansas, the Senate version of the health care bill is causing different controversy. The CBS affiliate in Little Rock presents views from the Campaign for Responsible Health Care Reform and the AARP.
“The Campaign for Health Care Reform is paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The group says that the House health care reform bill and the one working its way through the Senate will hurt seniors with deep cuts to Medicare. Not true says AARP. State Director Maria Reynolds-Diaz, 'What we’d like to see is Medicare be saved and that it be strengthened, and this bill does that.’”
Do you think the health care bill will pass through the Senate? Or, will concerns about funding keep the bill from ever being debated on the floor?
