Senate Votes in Favor of Continued Debate on Health Care Reform

This just in, in a vote that concluded at approximately 8:05 pm EST tonight, the Senate has voted 60-39 in favor of moving forward with the health care reform debate.

What this means is the current reform bill will go up for debate and consideration for a final vote in the Senate. If the bill passes the Senate, then it will go on to President Obama for his signature prior to being placed into law.

There will still be some intense debate, and there’s no certainty at this point the Bill will get final approval by the Senate, but this is still considered to be one more very important step forward in providing health care to tens of millions of Americans who currently do without.

The vote tonight followed a very distinct line according to party affiliation, with the minority Republican party voting against.

Another important result of tonight’s vote is also momentum for health care reform. Several times in the past, health care reform was claim as “dead”. It was declared dead months ago by Right Wing pundits such as Rush Limbaugh. It was considered dead by many who participated in “tea-parties”, and many in the Republican party have previously considered the Bill to be dead. Yet even with doubt and Republican criticism, the health care reform bill has been able to advance further than any other health care reform bill in the past.