Here Comes the Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tonight unveiled the Senate version of health care reform legislation as an amendment to H.R. 3590, and named it the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (pdf). According to the CBO score (pdf), the bill would spend $849 billion over 10 years to insure 31 million Americans who currently lack coverage, and would reduce the federal budget deficit by $127 billion over a decade. Click to read a two-page summary (pdf) of the bill prepared by Senate Democrats.

According to The Hill:

Democrats invoked the memory of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who called healthcare reform the cause of his life. “I intend to ensure that we do everything we can to fulfill Ted Kennedy’s dream,” said Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

On Saturday, the Senate will convene for an unusual weekend session to focus on a procedural vote on closure so that the procedural debate can end and a motion to take up debate on the bill on the Senate Floor can be offered. There are no guarantees that Reid has the 60 votes necessary to move the bill forward. 

Late holdouts on the Dem side include Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), who are being wooed, cajoled and pressured by a team of advocates led by Vice President Biden, Interior Secretary and former Senator Ken Salazar and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Sen. Joe Lieberman (ME Party-CT) has, of course, pledged to oppose the bill because it contains an opt-out public option.

Every single Republican Senator is against the bill, including Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who has indicated she'll vote against cloture. I guess all that ass kissing on the part of the Senate Finance Committee and others didn't help much after all.

The New York Times provides a rundown of provisions in the bill. A particular favorite of mine is Reid's addition of a 5% tax on elective cosmetic surgery to help fund the bill. Some differences with the House bill:

• increases Medicare payroll tax on high-income people and imposes a new excise tax on high-cost “Cadillac health plans” offered by employers to their employees
• imposes less stringent penalties for not obtaining health insurance
• continues adherence to the Hyde amendment instead of the Stupak amendment regarding women's choice
• many provisions wouldn't kick in until 2014, a year later than the House bill
• states can opt out of public option by enacting legislation

John Nichols at The Nation explains the Senate's provisions related to women's choice:

The Senate plan does not contain the draconian "Stupak" language, which was written into the House bill with the intent of establishing radical new limits on access to reproductive health services.

... It preserves existing limits on public-funding of abortions. But, as part of the exchange set up by the bill, families and individuals who participate in the new program could purchase insurance plans that provide abortion coverage.

Open Congress has a comparison chart of the CBO reviews of the House, Senate Finance and Reid's bill.