Health Care Reform: Ben Nelson Satisfied, Doc Fix Dropped from Senate Bill added to Defense Authorization Bill

Senator Ben Nelson announced he was satisfied with a proposed change to the health care reform bill in the Senate which will prevent government supported health plans from paying for abortions using the government’s monies.    Participants receiving subsidies will have to pay an addition amount to include abortion coverage.

The Managers Amendment which is 360+ pages was released early Saturday AM and includes sections on all types of fixes.  It should be noted that the amendments drop the one year Doc Fix (preventing the cuts in Medicare payments to physicians).  Instead a two month fix (through February) was added to the Defense Appropriations bill (that is right the bill to support the war in Afghanistan and the Pentagon).

The CBO sent a score over on Saturday outlining the cost of the bill and a correction to Senator Reid stating that the score was off by almost $500 billion. 

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill at 1:00am Monday.