Single- payer plan dies in Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The liberals’ longtime dream of a government- run health-care system for all died Wednesday in the Senate, but Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont vowed it will return when the realization dawns that private insurance companies “are no longer needed.”

The proposal’s demise came as Senate Democratic leaders and the White House sought agreement with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., to become the 60th supporter of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul — the number needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Nelson has met three times in the past nine days with Obama. His Nebraska-based chief of staff, Tim Becker, spent the day in Washington in discussions with administration officials on details of recent negotiations between his boss and the president.

Though Nelson is seeking stricter curbs on abortions in the insurance system the bill would establish, he also has raised issues in his home state that are unrelated to the health-care legislation, according to an official with close ties to the senator. The official spoke on grounds of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Sanders, an independent and socialist, said his approach is the only one “which eliminates the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste, administrative costs, bureaucracy and profiteering that is engendered by the private insurance companies.” His remarks drew handshakes and even a hug or two from Democrats who had filed into the Senate to hear him.

Sanders acknowledged the proposal lacked the votes to pass, and he chose to withdraw it after Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., exercised his prerogative and required Senate clerks to begin reading the 767-page proposal aloud to a nearly empty chamber. After three hours, they were 139 pages into it.

Republicans accused Democrats of trampling on Senate procedure in allowing Sanders to interrupt the reading, and Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the incident showed the majority party “is willing to do anything to jam through a 2,000-page bill before the American people or any of us has a chance to read it.”

It was unclear how much, if any, headway Nelson’s pursuers were making as they struggle to pass the health-care measure by Christmas.

The Nebraska lawmaker told reporters he was reviewing a proposal to toughen abortion restrictions in the legislation. Nelson said the compromise negotiated by anti- abortion Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., involves attempt to separate private and public funds, an approach that in the past failed to sway the Nebraska moderate and Catholic bishops.