WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate is set to begin debate Monday on a bill to overhaul health care, but it appears Democrats no longer have the 60 votes needed to make it a reality.
A vote to debate the $848 billion bill got exactly the 60 votes it needed earlier in the month, but some Democratic senators said they want tigher restrictions on abortion coverage.
Others said they would jump ship unless a government plan to compete with private insurance companies gets tossed, while another group said they would not vote for a bill without a government-run health care option.
Test Vote: What Florida’s Senators Said
| Senator | Party | Vote |
|---|
| George LeMieux | R | NO |
| Bill Nelson | D | YES |
Lemieux has said in the past that taking money from Medicare was not the way to improve health care, but he admitted something needs to be done.
Nelson has said he was in favor of a government-run health care system, as long as it is held to the same standards as private insurance companies.
The House approved its version of the bill earlier in November.
GOP Senator: Bill Can’t Be Fixed
The No. 2 Republican in the Senate is urged his Democratic colleagues to start over in crafting a bill to overhaul the health care system, but that’s not likely, given the debate is set to begin Monday.
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona said the Senate bill doesn’t actually deal with the problems facing Americans, and that there was no way to fix the bill.
Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana said it might be impossible to come up with an ideal solution for dealing with problems in the health care system, but added doing nothing is not a good idea, either, though he still had many questions about the Senate bill.
In the end, Bayh said any bill the Senate passes may be imperfect.
Kyl and Bayh appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”
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