Senate committee set Vote for health overhaul

President Barack Obama ' s plan to remake the nation ' s health care system is about to take its biggest step yet toward becoming reality.

The important Senate Finance Committee was poised to approve sweeping legislation Tuesday requiring midpoint all Americans to purchase insurance and ushering mark a host of other changes to the nation ' s $2. 5 trillion medical system.

Much job would corker ahead before a bill could attend on Obama ' s desk, but turmoil by the Finance Committee would mark a weighty advance, capping rife delays considering Chairman Max Baucus, D - Mont., in charge marathon negotiating sessions _ at last hopeless _ aimed at impressive a bipartisan bill.

With Finance Committee passage, Obama ' s top domestic priority will have advanced farther than former President Bill Clinton ' s effort ever did. The Clinton health plan never made it through all the congressional committees with jurisdiction.

Democrats and their allies scrambled Monday to knock it down. " Distorted and flawed, " said White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass. AARP ' s senior policy strategist, John Rother, called it " fundamentally dishonest. "

The bill includes consumer protections such as limits on copays and deductibles and relies on federal subsidies to help lower - income families purchase coverage. Insurance companies would have to take all comers, and people could shop for insurance within new state marketplaces called exchanges.

Medicaid would be expanded, and though employers wouldn ' t be required to cover their workers, they ' d have to pay a penalty for each employee who sought insurance with government subsidies. The bill is paid for by cuts to Medicare providers and new taxes on insurance companies and others.

Unlike the other health care bills in Congress, Baucus ' would not allow the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies, a divisive element sought by liberals.

Once the Finance Committee has acted, the dealmaking can begin in earnest with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D - Nev., working with White House staff, Baucus and others to blend the Finance bill with a more liberal version passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

A major question mark is whether Reid will include some version of a so - called public plan in the merged bill. Across the Capitol, House Democratic leaders are working to finalize their bill, which does contain a public plan, and floor action is expected in both chambers in coming weeks. If passed, the legislation would then go to a conference committee to reconcile differences.