Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/key-senate-panel-nears-health-care-reform-vote Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The Senate Finance Committee has finished a marathon week sorting through hundreds of amendments to Chairman Max Baucus's health care reform plan. Next stop for the bill: a vote by the full committee. Betty Ann Bowser reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Next tonight, senators take a big step toward health reform. Betty Ann Bowser reports for our Health Unit, a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. SEN. MAX BAUCUS, D-Mont.: I'm very proud tonight of what we've done. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Bleary-eyed members of the Senate Finance Committee ended marathon deliberations on health care reform shortly after 2 a.m. this morning.The committee is expected to officially pass the legislation early next week, after the Congressional Budget Office crunches the numbers. Committee Chairman Max Baucus said he expects it will cost no more than $900 billion and will include an expansion of Medicaid.In a sense, health care reform has hit a milestone, because never before has legislation to overhaul the nation's health care system gone this far. It's now on the verge of clearing five different congressional committees.In the closing hours of the Senate Finance markup, the committee lowered penalties on Americans who don't buy health insurance from as much as $1,900 a year for a family down to a maximum penalty of $200, which could rise to as much as $800 over time.It came after an impassioned plea to lower penalties came from Maine's Olympia Snowe, the one Republican who might vote for the bill. SEN. OLYMPIA SNOWE, R-Maine: I just don't understand why there's this impetus to keep driving this in this way to punish people. Now, I understand the rationality behind the individual mandate. Certainly, you know, we shouldn't pay for those who don't have health insurance. It's not about raising the revenue. It's about getting it right for affordability. So why punish the average family or the individual to pay these onerous penalties? BETTY ANN BOWSER: The amendment also, in effect, exempts 2 million people from the bill's requirement to buy health insurance and removes the possibility of criminal penalties if they fail to do so. SEN. MAX BAUCUS: All those in favor, say "aye."