Health bill for Christmas

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his Democratic colleagues delivered President Obama a welcome Christmas present early Thursday, approving the Senate healthcare reform bill 60-39 in a party line vote.

Though seeming inevitable for the past week the final vote was a welcome relief for Democrats. And President Obama can finally leave with his family for his delayed Christmas vacation in Hawaii.

The bill will extend health insurance to an additional 31 million people, require everyone to have health insurance or face a fine, establish new health insurance exchanges and outlaw the denial of insurance for pre-existing medical conditions.

It is also estimated to cost $871 billion in the next decade.

The Senate bill must now be reconciled with the House version in conference committee. Democrats hope to have a final bill for the president to sign before the State of the Union address in late January.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will not ask House members to simply rubber stamp the Senate version. There are significant differences between the two bills including a public option in the House version. Negotiations over them may drag on into February.

Reid was not worrying about that Thursday morning.

"I'm not going to talk about conference," he told reporters. "I am going to just sit back and watch my rabbits eat my cactus."