Finally, the wait is over. The long-anticipated Senate health reform bill (a bill blended from the two bills reported from the Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committees) has been filed. The bill number is HR 3589. It is over 2,000 pages, so not a quick & easy read! It is believed that most of the rural provisions that were gained during the Senate Finance Committee debate are still included. Preliminary discussions of the bill have begun on the Senate Floor – – but there will be a few procedural hurdles that must be overcome before we get to the actual debate where amendments will be offered.

The bill has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) at $849 billion over ten years, ie, within the target that the Democrats were shooting for. CBO indicates that the bill will actually reduce the deficit by $127 billion over ten years and $650 billion over the following ten years. The bill is also projected to insure 94% of the population.

As of right now, it looks like the Senate will work on procedural maneuvers through the weekend. Majority Leader Reid will file a procedural motion know as “cloture” today. The purpose of the vote is to end current debate and allow a motion to proceed to the health reform bill — the first of these two procedural votes will be Saturday and the second will be Sunday. However, this is very fluid and may change. One current roadblock that may delay this strategy is that Senator Baucus (D-MT) is in Montana due to a family matter – – if he is unable to return for the weekend votes, it will be delayed.

If 60 votes can be gained in the motion to proceed, the Senate rules then require the Clerk to read the bill. It is standard operating procedure that this perfunctory move is waived – – however, because we anticipate a Republican filibuster, the motion to waive the reading of the bill is expected to fail. This will require the Clerk to read out loud the full 2000+ page bill – – which could easily take until next Wednesday. The Senate will then be in recess on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. This means that actual debate will not begin until the following Monday (November 30).

Thanks to our friends at the NRHA for providing this information. Stay tuned for more up to the minute information as it becomes available to us!