Senate, Government-provided Health Insurance | featured news

44 | President calls Senate plan "a creative new framework" to provide coverage to uninsured without relying on government insurance option.

Two centrist senators, Ben Nelson and Joseph I. Lieberman, said that they were opposed the bill as it is currently written, particularly its inclusion of a new government-run insurance program.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has told colleagues that he may include a government-run health insurance plan in a health care bill he will soon take to the Senate floor.

Senate Democrats said Sunday that they were fleshing out plans to pass health legislation, particularly the option of a new government-run insurance program, with a simple majority, instead of the 60 votes that would ordinarily be needed to overcome a filibuster.