Senator Olympia Snowe is Only Republican To Vote For Democratic Health Care Plan

By Amanda Pendolino on October 14th, 2009

olympia-snowe-1 There’s a new name in health care reform: Olympia Snowe. According to CNN, the Senator from Maine was the only Republican to vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s $829 billion plan to extend coverage to an additional 29 million Americans.

The committee passed its long-awaited plan yesterday with a 14-8 vote. All of the Democrats on the committee voted in favor of the bill, which would subsidize insurance for poorer Americans, establish nonprofit health care cooperatives, and create health insurance exchanges to make it easier for small groups and individuals to buy coverage. It would also cap annual out-of-pocket expenses and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

“We are now closer than ever before to passing health reform, but we’re not there yet,” President Obama said. “Now’s not the time to pat ourselves on the back.” Instead, he said, it is time to “dig in and work even harder to get this done.”

He also commended Olympia “for both the political courage and the seriousness of purpose that she’s demonstrated throughout this process.”

Olympia wasn’t 100% happy with the bill, but she didn’t want to stop the reform process. “When history calls, history calls,” she said. ”And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress [taking] every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”

Here’s hoping that other Republicans will follow Olympia’s lead. It’s not a partisan issue; it’s a human issue.