Griper Blade: Insurance Industry's Hail Mary

Big vote today on healthcare reform. The Senate Finance Committee will vote on its version of a reform bill and there isn't a lot of fingernail biting going on over it. This thing, as bad as it is and barring the completely unforeseen, is going to pass. McClatchy Newspapers has the shocking headline, "Partisan split likely in key Senate health care vote."

Imagine that.

The committee is the last of five congressional panels considering the measure. Once Finance is done, Senate leaders and the White House will merge the proposal with another one written by the Senate Health Committee over the summer, creating one bill likely to be considered by lawmakers later this month.

Three House of Representatives committees also have finished writing bills, and those, too, will merge into one. Final House action also is expected in late October.

In the Finance Committee, while virtually all 13 Democrats are expected to back the proposal, only one of the 10 Republicans, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, is viewed as a possible supporter.

So 14-9, 13-10, 12-11... something like that. Then this contentious bill will be absorbed within another bill -- twice -- and the final legislation sent to the president's desk probably won't look anything like Max Baucus's compromise. It's a big fight over a bill that only stands a chance of hell of ever become the law in an alternate reality. Welcome to Washington... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]