The US Senate on Thursday cast its first votes on legislation to enact President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority, overhauling US health care, four days into its bitter debate on the plan.
Lawmakers voted 61-39 on an amendment, authored by Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski, to make it easier for women to get no-cost preventive care including mammograms or annual tests for heart disease.
The vote came after a government advisory task force sparked fears of future rationing of health care by issuing an instantly controversial finding that regular mammograms were not necessary for women under 50.
Senators also defeated a Republican amendment taking aim at the legislation’s 400 billion dollars in cuts to the Medicare health plan for the elderly, a key part of paying for the nearly one-trillion-dollar bill.
After months of fractious debate in committee and behind closed doors and a key procedural vote two weeks ago, the Senate finally began its formal consideration of the bill on Monday.
Democrats hope to finish work on the measure this year — but many votes, and likely Republican delaying tactics, stand in their way.
The White House-backed bill aims to extend coverage to some 31 million Americans out of the roughly 36 million who currently lack it, while curbing soaring costs and improving the quality of care.
The measure includes a government-backed insurance “public option” to compete with private insurers, tough new restrictions on dropping care for pre-existing ailments, and an end on lifetime caps for coverage.
It is estimated to cost 848 billion dollars through 2019 but cut the sky-high US budget deficit by 130 billion dollars over the same period, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Senate approval of the measure would force the Senate and House of Representatives to reconcile their rival versions of the bill and vote again on whether to send it to Obama.
The United States is the world’s richest nation but the only industrialized democracy that does not provide health care coverage to all of its citizens, about 36 million of whom are uninsured.
Washington spends more than double what Britain, France and Germany do per person on health care, but lags behind other countries in life expectancy and infant mortality, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
