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    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_423"
                     title="Week 31: Baucus Quotes Gandhi; Obama Wants $80 Billion HHS Boost"
                     score="0.013"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/tb/18337?impressionId=1265788412386"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON  --  Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, likes to start hearings with a quote from a famous leader. This week, he quoted Mahatma Gandhi.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Every worthwhile accomplishment . . . has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle, and a victory,&quot; said Baucus, who has been an integral part of the negotiations that stalled last month with Congress apparently just weeks away from passing a healthcare reform bill.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The effort to enact healthcare reform &quot;has certainly seen its struggles,&quot; Baucus said. But he said he agrees with President Barack Obama, who urged Congress during his State of the Union address not to give up on passing comprehensive reform.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We have gone well past this effort&apos;s beginning,&quot; Baucus said. &quot;We have endured our share of struggle. Now let us at last bring this bill to victory.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since the election to the U.S. Senate of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown  --  a vocal opponent of healthcare reform  --  and the president&apos;s State of the Union message, which focused strongly on job creation and improving the economy, healthcare reform has been moved to a back burner.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But &quot;I&apos;m very confident we&apos;re going to pass healthcare reform this year,&quot; Baucus said during Wednesday&apos;s hearing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Obama also urged Congress again not to give up on a bill when he spoke to Democrats at a question-and-answer session on Thursday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;All that&apos;s changed in the last two weeks is that our party&apos;s gone from having the largest majority in a generation to having the second-largest majority in a generation,&quot; Obama said. &quot;We&apos;ve got to remember that.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although Baucus used most of his speaking time talking about healthcare reform, the purpose of this week&apos;s hearing was to question Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the $80 billion increase in funding for HHS requested in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/18248&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/18248&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Obama&amp;#8200;Requests&amp;#8200;$80&amp;#8200;Billion&amp;#8200;Increase&amp;#8200;in&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Funding&quot;&gt;president&apos;s 2011 budget&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Under Obama&apos;s blueprint, HHS would receive $911 billion in 2011, most of which would be Medicare and Medicaid spending. But the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would also get a $1 billion boost for medical research, and there would be money for improving food, drug, and device safety, and to intensify efforts to help Americans quit smoking and get healthy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The President&apos;s budget doesn&apos;t make any provisions for healthcare reform should it be enacted.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Healthcare spending now accounts for 17.3% of the nation&apos;s total spending, according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/18302&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/18302&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;In&amp;#8200;Bad&amp;#8200;Economy,&amp;#8200;Record&amp;#8200;Growth&amp;#8200;in&amp;#8200;Health&amp;#8200;Spending&quot;&gt;new data&lt;/a&gt; released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The recession of 2009, coupled with growing use of medical services, led to the fastest one-year growth in health spending since the 1960s, according to the CMS report.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By 2019, national health spending is projected to reach $4.5 trillion and account for about 19% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the report.&lt;/p&gt;

    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_193"
                     title="Democratic Supermajority at Stake in Mass. Election"
                     score="-0.002"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/tb/18032?impressionId=1265788412386"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON  --  As voters in Massachusetts cast ballots to elect a new U.S. senator, Democrats in Congress are scrambling to come up with a backup plan in case Republican Scott Brown beats Democrat Martha Coakley in today&apos;s election.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If Brown takes the seat  --  left vacant after &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/15694&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/15694&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Brain&amp;#8200;Tumor&amp;#8200;Fells&amp;#8200;Ted&amp;#8200;Kennedy&quot;&gt;Sen. Edward Kennedy died&lt;/a&gt; in August  --  the win would break the Democrat&apos;s filibuster-proof 60-seat supermajority. Although the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/17679&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/17679&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Senate&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;Senate has already passed&lt;/a&gt; a healthcare reform bill, in the typical course of events, the upper chamber would need to take a final vote on whatever measure results when its bill is combined with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;House&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;bill passed by the House&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;mceItemHidden&quot;&gt;Coakley, who is the Massachusetts attorney general, and Brown, a state senator, were neck-and-neck in the polls when voting booths opened.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Another option would obviate a need for a second Senate vote by convincing members of the House to approve a version of the bill that closely mirrors what the Senate passed. That version could then go directly to the president&apos;s desk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although the two bills are similar  --  and identical on some points  --  a few notable differences make it unlikely that members of the House would support a wholesale adoption of the Senate bill.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance, the Senate bill is less restrictive about using federal funds for abortion, it doesn&apos;t contain a public insurance plan, and it doesn&apos;t exempt insurance companies from antitrust laws.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At least one moderate Democrat  --  Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.)  --  has said House members wouldn&apos;t vote for the Senate bill, according to the &lt;em&gt;New York Times. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;If Scott Brown wins, it&apos;ll kill the health bill,&quot; Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) reportedly said last week.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;President Obama traveled to Massachusetts over the weekend to campaign for Coakley and today, the president sent out an e-mail pitch aimed at getting Massachusetts voters to support Coakley.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Right now, the polls are open to elect a new senator to the seat that my friend Ted Kennedy held for 47 years,&quot; Obama wrote. &quot;The choice could not be more stark, and the result could not be of greater consequence  --  for Massachusetts or the nation.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Polls in Massachusetts close at 8 p.m.&lt;/p&gt;


    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20090101_19_3588"
                     title="Week 21: House Gears Up for Floor Vote on Healthcare Bill"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/tb/16860?impressionId=1265788412386"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON  --  The House of Representatives is just a day away from taking a crucial vote on whether to pass its healthcare reform bill, and key players are standing up and choosing sides.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The American Medical Association (AMA), which supported an earlier draft of the House bill said it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16836&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16836&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;AMA,&amp;#8200;AARP&amp;#8200;Back&amp;#8200;House&amp;#8200;Bill&quot;&gt;backs the new version&lt;/a&gt;, but stopped short of issuing a glowing endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;H.R. 3962 is not the perfect bill, and we will continue to advocate for changes, but it goes a long way toward expanding access to high-quality, affordable health coverage for all Americans, and it would make the system better for patients and physicians,&quot; said AMA President James Rohack, MD.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Another significant endorsement of the House bill came from the powerful seniors group AARP, which said the bill would accomplish several of the group&apos;s main agenda items  --  lowering prices for seniors, eliminating the coverage gap in Medicare Part D called the &quot;doughnut hole,&quot; and eliminating insurers&apos; practice of charging seniors much higher premiums because of their age.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The group&apos;s executive vice president of policy, John Rother, spoke with &lt;em&gt;MedPage Today &lt;/em&gt;about the group&apos;s endorsement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The endorsement by AARP ... and all the other groups is very significant and historic,&quot; Rother said. &quot;AARP&apos;s endorsement is in reaction to closing the Medicare doughnut hole, free prevention services, better payment for doctors, and also making available affordable insurance to those under 65 without preexisting conditions.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Another key endorsement, albeit an expected one, came from President Barack Obama via an official &quot;Statement of Administration Policy&quot; sent Friday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, a bill that represents a critical milestone in the effort to reform our healthcare system,&quot; the statement said. &quot;It meets the president&apos;s criteria for health insurance reform: It assures that all Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare that is there when they need it and does so without adding a dime to the deficit.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Earlier on Friday, budget wonks debated the fiscal responsibility of the House bill during an event sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Several of the more left-leaning policy experts agreed that the bill accomplishes the president&apos;s objective of spending less than $1 trillion over a decade and slowing healthcare spending growth after that, but one panelist said it falls short of the president&apos;s goal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to his estimates, said Jim Capretta, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the bill would cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years. (The Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost about $1.1 trillion).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I don&apos;t think they&apos;ve come close to fixing the the budget problem,&quot; said Capretta, who was a budget adviser for the Bush administration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The debate over cost also signifies a fundamental disagreement between the left and the right: Republicans tend to think cost-control is the most important part of healthcare reform, while Democrats seem to place expanding coverage at the top of the list.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The most important thing in this bill is to signal the commitment to covering everyone,&quot; said Len Nichols, of the left-leaning think tank, the New America Foundation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The amendment to the House bill filed by Republicans this week  --  which is essentially a counter bill  --  would be drastically cheaper than the Democrats&apos; version. But it would only expand coverage to an additional 3 million people, compared with the 36 million additional that Democrats hope to cover in their bill.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Karen Ignagni, president of America&apos;s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), sent a letter to Democratic House leaders on Thursday detailing the many elements of the bill that the insurance lobby is against.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ignagni urged Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Republican Leader John Boehner (D-Ohio) to &quot;consider alternative approaches to healthcare reform that do not increase costs or disrupt the coverage on which millions of Americans currently rely.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The group opposes cuts that bill makes to Medicare Advantage plans, the public insurance option, and the provision that would require insurance companies to justify changes in premiums, but would not require hospitals and physicians to explain how they determine charges for medical services.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Floor debate on the H.R. 3962 is expected to begin on Saturday morning and the topic of abortion will likely take up a good amount of debate time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Abortion opponent Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), has said that as many as 40 Democrats might vote against the bill if stronger language restricting federal funds from being used for abortion services isn&apos;t added to the bill.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since the 1970s, the Hyde Amendment has banned federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman. Abortion rights supporters say adding new language would be redundant, but anti-abortion politicians want the language to go even further and bar any insurance plan that received government money from covering abortions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Debate over the public insurance plan is also likely to emerge on Saturday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;H.R. 3962 does not contain a fix for the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, which determines physician reimbursement under Medicare. That issue is being addressed in a separate bill, and House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he expects that measure to come to a floor vote in a few weeks. If the SGR bill doesn&apos;t pass, doctors are scheduled to see a 21% reduction in Medicare reimbursements in 2010,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16736&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16736&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;CMS&amp;#8200;Announces&amp;#8200;21%&amp;#8200;Payment&amp;#8200;Cut&amp;#8200;for&amp;#8200;Physicians&quot;&gt; CMS announced&lt;/a&gt; this week.&lt;/p&gt;

    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20090101_19_3691"
                     title="Week 22: Doc Groups Optimistic about SGR Vote"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/tb/17005?impressionId=1265788412386"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON  --  Physician groups spent the week gearing up for a vote scheduled next week on the Medicare payment formula, meanwhile senators slogged away on healthcare reform.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The House is slated to vote on a bill that would repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, which determines how physicians are paid under Medicare, and replace it with a new one. The vote will come just weeks after the Senate tried, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16551&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16551&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;SGR&amp;#8200;Fix&amp;#8200;Fails&amp;#8200;in&amp;#8200;the&amp;#8200;Senate&quot;&gt;failed&lt;/a&gt;, to pass a similar measure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Despite the failure of the Senate, organized medicine is optimistic that the House will have enough votes to scrap the flawed formula once and for all.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I think the House is likely to pass it,&quot; said Jack Lewin, MD, CEO of American College of Cardiology. &lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lori Heim, MD, president of the American Association of Family Physicians (AAFP), agreed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We&apos;re certainly more hopeful that it&apos;s going to pass in the House,&quot; Heim said. &quot;We&apos;re cautiously optimistic.&quot;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The SGR was developed in 1997 as a way to prevent Medicare payments from growing too quickly by indexing reimbursements to changes in the gross domestic product (GDP). But healthcare spending has been growing much faster than GDP, so the SGR formula has mandated cuts year after year, and every year, physician groups plead for Congress to override it. So far, they&apos;ve been successful, but billions of dollars of debt have accumulated as a result of not implementing the cuts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Senators voted against the measure in October because the fix  --  which was estimated to cost $245 billion but is now pegged at $210 billion  --  had no financial offsets, so it would have added to the federal deficit.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The bill pending in the House doesn&apos;t technically have any financial offsets either. However, there&apos;s a key difference in the way the House and the Senate have handled the debt. House lawmakers voted in their 2010 budget resolution passed earlier this year to accept the $210 billion as already being part of the federal deficit.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;It&apos;s a part of the national debt right now,&quot; Lewin explained. &quot;It&apos;s funny money. There is no money to pay it off. It&apos;s just being honest about it,&quot; explained Lewin.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But in the Senate version of the SGR bill, the debt was not considered part of the deficit. That meant that  --  at least on paper  --  senators are expecting that physicians will take huge payment cuts in the upcoming years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That budgetary nuance is one reason that the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the House have indicated they&apos;re likely to support the SGR bill, said Heim and Lewin.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The House proposal would keep payments a step ahead of the GDP by replacing the SGR formula with an annual payment increase equal to 1% more than the growth in the GDP  --  2% more for primary and preventive care physicians.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Without legislative action this year, physicians would face a 21% cut in reimbursements in 2010 and an additional 2% cut a year for several years thereafter, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). But with the bill, the fees paid to physicians under Medicare would increase by about $105 billion over 10 years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If the House passes the bill next week, it would have to go to the Senate for a vote. And if senators balked at passing a bill that wasn&apos;t offset before, there is no indication that it would pass on a second go-round.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;That&apos;s the problem,&quot; Heim said. &quot;However, if it passes the House, it&apos;s going to have some momentum.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But Lewin is concerned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I&apos;m worried that the Senate is much more unfavorable, because the Senate wants to find the money and pay it off in the budget and I don&apos;t think they can do it,&quot; he said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Senate&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in the Senate are working to gain enough support to win 60 votes from their base to pass healthcare reform legislation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democrats have said the Senate will vote on the measure by the end of the year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Reid sent the bill  --  a merged version from the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee  --  to the CBO several weeks ago. A &quot;score&quot; was expected this week, but so far has not been posted on the CBO&apos;s Web site.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While lawmakers waited for a score, former president &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16943&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16943&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Bill&amp;#8200;Clinton&amp;#8200;Gives&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Pitch&amp;#8200;to&amp;#8200;Senate&amp;#8200;Dems&quot;&gt;Bill Clinton visited Capitol Hill&lt;/a&gt; this week to urge Senators to move quickly to pass comprehensive healthcare reform, calling it an &quot;economic imperative.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Clinton said the doctors he knows are desperate to have reform passed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The AMA endorsed it, the nurses, AARP,&quot; he said. &quot;I mean, every doctor I know is screaming for it every day because of the way the whole financing and bureaucracy requirement of the healthcare system has taken away the joy of practicing medicine and taking more time.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Senators are also debating &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16931&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16931&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Senators&amp;#8200;Ponder&amp;#8200;Abortion&amp;#8200;Language&amp;#8200;in&amp;#8200;Reform&amp;#8200;Bill&quot;&gt;abortion language&lt;/a&gt; in their legislation, after a controversial amendment to restrict abortion was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16847&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/16847&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;House&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;approved&lt;/a&gt; as part of the House healthcare bill.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The House amendment would bar the government from offering abortion in its public plan and make it illegal for private insurers who participate in the insurance exchange created in the bill from providing abortion coverage, except in the case of rape, incest, or when the woman&apos;s health is in danger.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Senate bill  --  though not released formally  --  uses the same language that was originally included in the House bill. That language says that at least one health plan in the exchange should provide abortion services, and at least one should not. It says no health plan would be discriminated against for its decision either way.&lt;/p&gt;

    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20090101_19_3996"
                     title="Senate Defeats Abortion Amendment"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/PublicHealth/tb/17402?impressionId=1265788412386"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON  --  By a 54-to-45 margin, the Senate has defeated an amendment to its healthcare reform bill that would have placed additional restrictions on federal funding for abortions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and nine other anti-abortion senators, mirrored an amendment to the lower chamber&apos;s bill from Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), which was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;House&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;approved by the House&lt;/a&gt; in November. The amendment would ban the public insurance plan from covering abortions and forbid any person receiving a federal subsidy for an insurance plan from participating in any plan that does cover abortion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The motion to &quot;table,&quot; or kill the Senate amendment Tuesday evening meant legislators there are through with the proposal in formal floor debate, but it could still find its way into the final healthcare reform package in a conference to reconcile Senate and House bills.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Six other Democrats joined Nelson in voting against the motion to kill the amendment. Two Republicans who support abortion rights  --  Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine  --  voted to defeat the amendment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nelson has said he won&apos;t support the Democrats&apos; healthcare reform bill unless it takes a stricter stance on preventing federal funds from being used for abortion than current law. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) needs all 60 Democrats to vote in favor of the bill in order for it to break an expected Republican filibuster, or find at least one Republican supporter.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Reid told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that if Nelson&apos;s amendment went down, he&apos;d work with the senator to reach an agreement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;If in fact he doesn&apos;t succeed here, we&apos;ll try something else,&quot; Reid said Tuesday afternoon.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Reid said he&apos;s morally opposed to abortion, but doesn&apos;t want the single issue to derail progress on the bill.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;This is a healthcare bill, not an abortion bill,&quot; he said. &quot;I will not support efforts to undermine this historic legislation.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Under the Senate healthcare reform bill, insurance plans could choose whether to cover abortion, but every state would have to offer at least one plan that covers abortion and one that does not. The public insurance option could provide abortion, but would have to pay for the procedure using premiums and copayments, not government money.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Authors of the underlying Senate bill say it upholds the 32-year-old current law, called the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anti-abortion lawmakers and activists say that&apos;s not enough. Nelson charged that the current bill would weaken the Hyde amendment by opening a &quot;new avenue of public funding for abortion.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) celebrated the defeat of the amendment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Today, the Senate voted down a truly cynical and backward amendment,&quot; said Anthony D. Romero, executive Director of the ACLU in a press release. &quot;The Nelson-Hatch amendment, like the Stupak-Pitts amendment, was a direct attack on a woman&apos;s right to make private healthcare decisions.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
</recommendedContent>