Hatch opposes health-care bill

The Senate health committee cast a milestone vote Wednesday to approve legislation expanding insurance coverage to nearly all Americans, becoming the first congressional panel to act on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The 13-10 party line vote advanced a $600 billion measure that would require individuals to get health insurance and employers to contribute to the cost. Democratic leaders are driving for floor votes in the House and Senate before Congress goes on its August break.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was among Republicans who opposed the bill.

Hatch complained the bill is "another $1 trillion Democratic bill that will impose a job-killing employer tax, create another government-run health-care program and give Washington bureaucrats more power than ever before to dictate health care for families in Utah and across the nation."

The committee earlier killed a Hatch amendment designed to ensure the bill will not lead to taxpayer-funded abortions, but did pass another of his amendments that would protect makers of biologic drugs (made from living cells) from competition from generic drug manufacturers for 12 years.

The health-committee bill calls for the government to provide financial assistance with premiums for individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level, or about $88,000 for a family of four, a broad cross-section of the middle class. The legislation is but one piece of a broader Senate bill still under development.

"This time, we've produced legislation that by and large I think the American people want," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who stood in for committee chairman Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy, who's made health-care legislation a lifelong priority, is being treated for brain cancer.

But ranking Republican Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming argued that the bill would break Obama's promises by adding to the deficit.

Obama quickly issued a statement saying the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee vote "should give us hope, but it should not give us pause. It should instead provide the urgency for the House and Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August recess."