Published 20 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4306
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4306

News

US inches closer towards healthcare reform as houses prepare for debate

Janice Hopkins Tanne

1 New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

By early November the US Senate and the House of Representatives are likely to have pulled together several different bills on healthcare reform and to have begun debating them.

There are five bills, three in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate. Committees are working to come up with a single bill for each chamber. The House and the Senate bills may differ.

The House and Senate will then debate each bill, propose amendments, and vote. After that a House and Senate conference committee will reconcile the bills, both House and Senate will vote on the final bill, and then send it to Barack Obama to sign or veto.

In the House, the bill can be passed by a simple majority, and Democrats have a large majority. In the Senate it will need 60 of the 100 senators to vote in favour, and that may be close. There . . . [Full text of this article]


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