The bill passes the Senate Finance Committee 14-9.

2:51 – Vote: all Democrats vote yes. Snowe is only Republican to join with the Democrats. the bill passes 14-9.

2:48 – To address Kyl previous complaint about the technical corrections not being part of the bill scored, Baucus had it voted on as an amendment. For some reason all the Republicans voted no. (This is a strange silliness I just can’t wrap my head around.)

2:40 – (Rockefeller with the closer. A nice gesture to win his vote?) Rockefeller will vote for the bill in spite of a lot of problems he has with it. He thinks the health insurance industry gets to sweet a deal. He favors the minimum medical loss ratio of 85% and believes a public option is necessary to slow down the health insurance industry. Rockefeller says the co-ops will not work and new regulations need to apply to all health insurance plans.

2:39 – Stabenow is now reading straight from the AARP website. They claim it is a myth that reform will hurt Medicare.

2:34 – Grassley harps on the fact that fixing Medicare Advantage overpayment could result in the reduction of some extra benefits Medicare Advantage sometimes provides.

2:23 – Carpo points out that the excise tax on high end insurance would hit people make below $250,000. (This is because people would start getting higher taxable wages and less money spent on their benefits by employers.) Carpo claims a vote against the bill is not a vote for the status quo. He claims the bill is a huge tax increase on middleclass Americans but does not bend the cost curve.

Carpo is another Republican to mention the 25 million left uninsured figure. (I’m surprised to see how many Republicans have pick up on the 25 million still uninsured number. It is a strange attack from the left that I did not expect to come from Republicans.)

2:18 – Carper it is important to bring down cost not just increase coverage.

2:11 – Kerry brings up the employer mandate issue. He is incredibly concerned that the current bill lacks one. He thinks, like in MA, the bill needs a real employer mandate. Kerry not surprisingly wants to see the excise tax on medical device manufacturers reduced. (His state has a large medical device industry.)

2:06 – Cornyn the bill takes some steps in the right direct. It needs to do more about cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare. This bill could in fact make things worse. It would cut Medicare and increase premiums. (Cornyn says it would do many terrible things.)

2:00 – Nelson says people are terrified by the possibility of not having or losing health insurance. He read four letters sent to him by individual’s screwed over by the insurance companies.

1:57 – Enzi, this bill fails to address the most important issue which is to lower cost for regular people. Enzi claims the bill will increase cost by mandating insurance companies in fact cover health care expenses. He is against the Medicaid expansion and the new taxes.

1:51 – Wyden is still pushing for a way to increase choice and maybe get a much watered down version of his free choice amendment in the final bill. He has been working with Baucus on something. Wyden is voting to advance the bill forward.

1:48 – Schumer and Elmendorf have some confusion about how many few people would be insured with changes to the individual mandate.

1:42 – Schumer, “this is a good bill.” The bill can be improved and he plans to continue to fight to make those changes. It is important that his bill helps move the country away from the fee for service system.

Schumer the bill must have a public option. It is the best way to reduce cost.

Schumer also believes the excise tax should be changed to protect people who have dangerous jobs that drive up premiums. Schumer is no fan of the individual mandate. It should be the job of insurance companies to make health care affordable not individuals to buy their product at any cost.

1:37 – Ensign is hammering on that the high end health insurance excise tax is not indexed for medical inflation. Over time more and more plans would probably be over the excise tax threshold. Surprise Surpise, Ensign joins the chorus of Republicans jumping on the fact that the CBO did not project what would happen to overall health care costs.

Ensign is now talking about the CBO letter which predicts that extreme tort reform would save the government around $50 billion. He calls it a real way to bring down cost.

1:36 – Schumer deferred a chance to speak again. (Has Schumer been replaced with a pod person?)

1:32 – Stabenow stress the positive changes the bill would make. It would make Medicaid a real safety net and would insure that women on the individual market can get coverage for maternity care. People can no longer be charged more or denied coverage for pre-existing conditions.

She does an interesting job of explaining how reform will help someone at several steps starting from their birth.

1:31 – Schumer deferred to Stabenow to speak. (Has Schumer ever turned down a chance to speak ever?)

1:25 – Roberts is making the case that the CBO score is useless because  Congress almost never let scheduled spending cuts or tax changes fully go into effect. (The argument is not without merit, but it is impossible to ever model what future Congresses might do.) Roberts claims the future decision by the new Medicare commission might eventually hurt people on Medicare.

1:19 – Crapo joins Bunning on his theme that the tax credits are not technically tax credits. They are not technically reductions in taxes collect but money spent by the government. Crapo is listing all the different revenue sources. It seems his goal is to depect the bill as a bunch of new tax increases.

1:13 – Bunning is making the case that the affordability tax credits on the exchange are not really a tax cut because for many people it would exceed their income tax burden (note: most people pay way more in pay roll taxes on their income than they do on the technical “income tax.”)

1:06 – Cantwell thinks the bill does a lot of good things but needs to be improved. Cantwell attacks the rapidly rising profits in the health insurance industry and the huge amount they spend on lobbying. “That is 6 lobbyists for every member of congress.”

Cantwell slams the Republicans for not putting forward real proposals for making health care affordable. This bill today is at least a downpayment.

1:05 – Cantwell walks in and gets a happy birthday sung to her (It seems like everyone in the SFC had a birthday in Sept or Oct. Watching the hearings I’ve had to listen to some pretty poorly sung versions of ‘Happy Birthday’.)

1:00 – Kyl attacks the cuts to Medicare. He claims the bill will led to “rationing.” The bill should be rejected.

12:59 – Baucus is clearly pleased to have Snowe support and said her statement here will be remembered.

12:56 – Snowe will vote to report the bill out of committee. She does it with reservations. She is worried about how the bill will eventually be combined with other bills and that it must maintain a good CBO score. “My vote today is my vote today,” it may not be the same tomorrow.

12:48 – Snowe thanks Baucus for the way he has led the process. As we contemplate are actions today we should contemplate the decades of inaction. Snowe list the many problems  facing our current system. She calls it a Titanic we know is heading for an iceberg.

Snowe says the mark produces some bipartisan reforms. Ending pre-existing conditions, creates exchanges which would be a marketplace that would reduce prices, etc… Snowe thinks offering national plans across state line is very important.

“Affordablity remains and continues to remain my pariment concern.” Snowe says they must continue to work to make sure every Americans has afford health insurance.

12:42 – Conrad attacks the idea of a public option tied to Medicare rates. His state has the second lowest Medicare reimbursement. He is angry that for 23 years he has only gotten Medicare reimbursement rates changed once. He says a public option tied to Medicare rates would have serious consequences for his state. It would threaten the viability of hospitals and doctors in rural states.

Conrad, “A public option tied to Medicare rates is a non-start with me.”

12:37 – Hatch – One of the main reason behind the call for reform is the sky rocking increase in premiums. He joins the chorus of Republicans complaining that the CBO has not done a study on the impact on premiums.

12:32 – Rockefeller will divide his closing statements in half.

Health care reform is about making people’s lives better. It is about eliminating the fear that one illness could send someone over the edge.

Rockefeller still feels the bill falls short of what is needed. He stress that this is a step in the right direction but this is not universal coverage. It is wrong to leave some many million uncovered.

12:27 – Grassley is reading through all the statistics from the CBO score of the bill for some reason. He called the bill the largest cuts to Medicare in history and the largest expansion of Medicaid in history.

12:26- Baucus – This completes for first round of five minute statements

12:14 – Lincoln sounds fairly happy with the Baucus bill. The positive CBO score was very important.

Lincoln’s statement does not really address the changes the bill would make, but instead focuses on the many problems in our current system. Her message is that our current system is broken and unsustainable. It heavily focusing on the health care problems in her state in Arkansas. “The cost of doing nothing is too high.”

Lincoln said that her support today does not insure her support for a later bill that deviates far from the current bill put together by Baucus.

12:08 – Carper believes passing this bill would begin to move the country to a better health care system. Carper brings up the famous moment when Conrad had Elmendorf say that the other health care bills would not bend the cost curve. Carper thinks it is critical that a health care reform bill would bend the cost curve. He praises the many changes the bill would make that should hopefully reduce health care cost system wide.

12:02 – Menendez says he will vote for the bill because it goes a long way in the right direction. He promises to continue to try to add a public health insurance option at some point later in the process. Menendez stresses the help it would provide to children. He is disappointed that it does not go far enough to provide affordable coverage for all. Like some other Democratic committee members, he attacks the “deeply flawed” AHIP studyand says it is proof of the need for a public option.

11:56 – Cornyn joins the chorus of Republicans pointing out that the CBO has not determined if the bill will increase or decrease the nations overall spending on health care. Cornyn argues that the changes will drive up premiums for individual.

11:49 – Bill Nelson is making the case that the “hidden tax” of cost shifting from uncompensated care for the uninsured is causing the real increase in premiums. Nelson also attacks the AHIP “study”. (Sounds like this study will be whipping boy of the day for Democrats.)

11:43 – Enzi says people calling him don’t get how we can cut money for Medicare than create a commission to save Medicare. It does not make sense to him either. Enzi, like Crapo, is hitting on the fact that CBO said the bill would bend the federal spending cost curve. It has not said if it would bend the overall spending on health care cost curve.

Enzi is trying to make the case that the new excise tax on the different industries would just be passed on to Americans in higher health insurance premiums.

11:37 – Wyden thanks Chairman Baucus for reaching out to him over the weekend to work on ways to increase consumer choice. (Sounds like there must have been a lot of last minute wooing to try to win Wyden’s vote in committee.) Wyden is disappointed that even by 2019 only a small segment of Americans would have consumer choice on the new exchanges.

Wyden thinks that a lot more work needs to be done to make health care more affordable for middleclass Americans.

11:29 – Ensign wants to take some time to talk about the “losers” in this bill. They include people on Medicare Advantage, anyone with a HSA, people from states with finance problems, etc… He claims this will uses Medicare as a “piggy bank” to pay for the uninsured. He hammers hard on the changes to Medicare Advantage.

He claims the tax on high end health care plans will eventually turn into a tax on almost all employer provide health insurance. (There is some truth to this because it is not indexed to medical inflation.)

It  sounds like there is not a part of the bill Ensign is not against. He is against the taxes, expansion of Medicaid, changes to Medicare, individual mandate, etc…

11:25 – Roberts says he is against the bill. He claims some will support it because it is the “moderate” bill compared to the HELP Committee or the House. He warns them that this will not be the final bill. It will be moved dramatically to the left going forward. He claims a vote for this bill is a vote for a future more liberal bill.

11:19 – Crapo asks Elmendorf if the CBO studied the effect on premiums to regular Americans. Elmendorf says that has not been analyzed. Elmendorf makes it clear that the CBO only scored that the bill would bend the cost curve for the federal government, but not for the whole health care system. That was not studied by the CBO.

Crapo got Elmendorf to agree that this bill would increase net federal spending on health care with the spending offset by taxes.

11:10 – Bunning says this bill is “clearly not the answer.” He attacks the bill from the left!?! for leaving 25 million uninsured. He mocks Democrats for calling 40 million uninsured Americans a serious moral problem, but than crafting a bill for leaving millions without insurance.

Bunning attacks every other aspect of the bill from left, right and center. He attacks the cuts to Medicare and the new taxes. He agrees with Nancy Pelosi!?! when she said that, the savings from this bill will come off the backs of the middleclass.

He is also furious that his amendment on protecting the VA system was gutted by being turned into a study.

Baucus claim the changes were made to Bunning’s amendment was a result of the CBO being unable to score it.

11:05 – Kerry has serious concerns by the lack of an employer mandate and will continue to try to get one added to the bill. Kerry calls the AHIP study yesterday a powerful argument for a public plan. He than rips the the PwC study paid for by the AHIP  for being filled with errors and for overlooking most of the important parts of the bill. Point by point Kerry attacks the AHIP study.

10:54 – Kyl begins by attacking the individual mandate excise tax. He points out a technical problem with the CBO scoring in regards to language in the bill and the effect of a technical correction document sent to the CBO by committee staff. Kyl is arguing that the CBO is not correct because it was not based on the exact language in the bill.

Baucus believes this argument is absurd. These technical corrections and clarifications happen in every bill and CBO score. Kyl and Baucus get into a heated exchange. The issue is would the fine for not having insurance be indexed to inflation or not. Kyl claims this is not a small correction but a serious change.

10:49 – Bingaman begins by asking a question about the excise tax on high end insurance plans. He believes it is important to bend the cost curve. Elmendorf says excise tax is an important part of pushing down on overall health care spending. Barthold Chief of Staff at JCT answers that the excise tax should result in a restructuring of employer provided health insurance benefits.

10:44 – Snowe begins by asking CBO director Elmendorf how to go forward with drafting and combining the bill so it maintains the bill’s current score. Snowe is worried that there could be serious changes in the score as the bill advances.

10:38 – Conrad claims Baucus did a great job writing the bill. Conrad says doing nothing is not an option. The nation is on a trend line to soaring national debt, increased premiums, and increased number of uninsured.

Conrad focusing mainly on the budget aspect of reform. It bends the cost curve. It saves money and is fully paid for.

After focusing on the cost, he than list the many improvements on the personal level. He also stress what is not in the bill. No government plan. No coverage for illegal immigrants. No cuts to Medicare.

10:30 – Hatch is disappointed that there will be another “divided vote.” He implies the committee process has been a sham and that the real bill is being written right now behind closed doors. (ironic giving that Hatch was part of the secret gang of seven who tried to write the bill behind closed doors)

Hatch goes on that attack. He claims the bill could increase premiums and would prevent people from keeping their current coverage. He attacks the changes to Medicare Advantage and claims the new taxes would in fact hit people making below $250,000.

Baucus tries cuts Hatch off half way through his remarks because this is only the 5 min opening statements. He does let Hatch finish his statement on the new taxes.

10:25 – Rockefeller after thanking Baucus, he begins by attacking the health insurance companies and their “study.” Rockefeller believes health insurance companies have been “laughing all the way to the bank.”

10:19 – Grassley begins his statement by thanking Baucus for the way he handled the process. He says there is a lot in the bill which does have consensus, but still points of disagreement.

Grassley next hightlights his many concerns. He has problem with the government being able to defining minimum benefits. He is against the tighter rating bands. Grassley believes new taxes will cause premium increase.

Grassley claims the “rug was pulled out from under him” and someone else killed the bipartisan talks. He does not beleive Baucus is responsible for the breakdown in bipartisan talks.

10:13 – Baucus calls the meeting to order. He explains the long process by which he wrote the bill. Baucus explains the many benefits from his bill. They include: increasing the number of insured Americans to 94%. Reducing drug prices for seniors. Ending the practice of pre-existing conditions and dropping coverage. Baucus called this now the time to get something done.

Finally the long waited Baucus Bill will be voted on in committee. Months of delay and set backs have pushed back this vote. The hearing was set to start at 10:00 am. The actually vote is expected around 2:00 pm.