This is where it gets interesting once the Finance committee approves the bill. What happens as it gets merged with the more ambitious health committee bill?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aIrf9uoyT0Rw###
Health Plan Advances as Millions Spared From Fines (Update1) The Senate Finance Committee, ending its debate over the biggest changes in the U.S. health-care system in four decades, agreed to protect millions of Americans from the legislation’s most punitive taxes and penalties.
The panel voted to spare retirees and employees in high- risk professions from a new tax on the costliest insurance plans, reduce or waive fines for people who fail to buy coverage and give states money to help insure low-income Americans.
The last-minute revisions clear the way for committee passage as early as next week of the only health-reform legislation that may attract Republican support in Congress.
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The fight to overhaul the health system, President Barack Obama’s top priority, is far from over. The bill that emerges from Baucus’s panel must be merged with one that passed the Senate health committee and eventually reconciled with a House measure. Those bills clash with the Baucus legislation on some of the most important issues, including how to expand insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans and how to pay for it. ###