The Senate has proposed and debated amendments to its health care reform legislation these past two weeks and there is more to come.  A vote in the Senate might come as early as next Wednesday, although we think that is unlikely, but is likely to come by next Saturday, December 19^th.  We are down to the wire and the 60 votes needed to end debate (“cloture”) and take a vote on the bill is still not guaranteed.  They will have to reach a fragile balance in the Senate to find 60 votes and get this done.  But as we know, it is critical that they succeed.  We have waited too long and worked too hard to turn back now.  This is the historic moment to take that first huge step towards a country that ensures everyone has access to quality affordable health care.

While all the tricky negotiations are going on there continues to be an onslaught of amendments on the Senate floor.  Some seek to weaken or delay reform.  But others would make important improvements to the bill.  We wanted to highlight a few of those for you here:

Protecting Children’s Health Care Coverage – Sen. Casey (S. 2790)

Presently the House’s health care reform bill eliminates the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides health insurance coverage to children of low-income families who are ineligible for Medicaid, in 2013 and moves up to 10 million children presently on CHIP into the health insurance Exchange. The Senate bill maintains CHIP until 2019, but does not fully fund it. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced an amendment that would keep and strengthen the CHIP program. The amendment would guarantee funding for eligible children and then transition them into the Exchange in 2019 on the condition that comparable coverage is affordable. It would also expand CHIP coverage to children in families at or below 250% of the federal poverty level in any state and would provide preventative and specialized services that children receive under Medicaid.

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