Olympia Snowe

Buoyed by a presidential pep talk and intense rounds of negotiations, Senate Democrats hope to move closer to embracing a major health care bill this week by tackling the nettlesome issue of abortion. Anti-abortion lawmakers in both parties have insisted that taxpayer funds not be used to pay for abortions in government-run health programs. But some liberals say proposed restrictions go too far by barring federally subsidized health insurance plans from covering abortion even if the procedures were entirely paid for with customers' premiums. That's the language the House adopted last month, angering liberal groups. A prominent anti-abortion Democratic senator, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, ... Read Full Story

The focus of the health overhaul debate now shifts to whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can persuade a handful of moderate senators to get behind his new proposal for a government-sponsored insurance plan. That's no sure bet. Even Reid, D-Nev., didn't claim to have the 60 votes needed to pass his proposal when he ended weeks of speculation by announcing that the Senate version of sweeping health care legislation would include a provision for the government to sell health insurance in competition with private insurers. The issue has been the biggest flash point in the health care debate, and government-sponsored insurance had been ... Read Full Story

They call her "President Snowe" in the blogosphere. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is the only Republican in Congress who might vote for President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul health care and extend coverage to those who lack it. And that gives the unassuming, 62-year-old lawmaker almost as much power over the bill's fate — and that of the millions of Americans it would affect — as the big guy himself. Which is why Snowe's cell phone has lit up with a particular phone number at odd times over the past year, once on the Maine coast as she and her husband drove past a ... Read Full Story

Sen. Olympia Snowe, the only Republican who voted to advance the Finance Committee's health care bill, said Wednesday she believes "the time has come to grapple with this issue that has eluded us for decades." "I thought this was a good place to start," the Maine senator said in a nationally broadcast interview a day after she joined 13 Democrats on the panel in voting to push forward the bill fashioned under the leadership of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Snowe said there were elements of the bill she still opposes, but she said that "we can't postpone the inevitable." She said her constituents in ... Read Full Story

President Barack Obama began a week that will dwell heavily on overhauling the health care system, declaring himself confident Congress will pass "a good health care bill" even though some Republican opponents were trying to kill the measure for political gain. At the same time, the president and some members of both parties were shifting from hard positions about a government insurance option toward some agreement on reducing medical care costs and restricting insurance company practices. Consensus appeared to be growing on the need to prevent the insurance industry from denying coverage to those with existing medical conditions or canceling policies when a person ... Read Full Story