Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill Released -- Help Us Read Through It

Dropping in at 615 pages is the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's attempt to fix the broken health care system. The HELP Committee is chaired by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). The second-ranking Democrat, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, had a large hand in drafting the bill as well, given Kennedy's absence from the committee while he battles brain cancer.

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The bill can be read here. A HELP Committee aide cautioned that the bill is not in its final form and that part of the reason for filing it is to meet a committee rule that requires a bill to be filed seven days before a vote can be held.

Committee Democrats will be meeting with their Republican counterparts Wednesday and Thursday to hash out the bill's details.

"On the legislation we'll introduce later today, there are some gaps in it and done so intentionally," said Dodd at a press conference earlier Tuesday. "There are no gaps in our determination, in my determination and that of my colleagues to have a public option, to have something done with the pay or play and deal with the follow on biologics. But I left those areas open for discussion, not because they're open for some sort of decision about whether or not we ought to move in that direction. But I want my Republican colleagues to know, I want their ideas, I want to hear what they have to say. This is a bill, it's an opening step."

Kennedy's bill will get its first hearing on Thursday and is scheduled for a committee vote on Tuesday, June 16th.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Tuesday that a committee vote on a health care bill could come as early as the week after next. The battle over the future of health care in America now enters a span of several months as important as any in a generation.

Below is a statement released by Kennedy and further down is the health care bill itself.

For the past year, Chairman Edward M. Kennedy and Democratic Members and staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) have been working to develop legislation that reduces health care costs, allows Americans to keep the coverage they have if they want it, and makes health insurance affordable to those who do not have it today.

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