By Arun Kumar
Washington, Dec 20 (IANS) With the last Democratic holdout on health care throwing his support behind a reform bill, hopes were raised for final passage by Christmas of President Barack Obama’s top domestic policy priority that its Republican critic said “will reshape our nation and our lives”.

Senator Ben Nelson’s support Saturday assured the party the crucial backing it needed to avoid a Republican filibuster that would prevent a Senate vote. Asked if he had secured the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters, “It seems that way.”

The first of a series of procedural votes is set for Monday on a so-called manager’s amendment, consisting of amendments crafted in the last one and a half weeks by Reid and the Senate could vote on the entire bill before Christmas.

A conference with the House to produce a final bill would likely extend into January, Senate aides said.

At the request of Republicans, the entire amendments package - 383 pages - was being read Saturday, for hours, on the Senate floor.

Obama said the Senate’s health care reform bill would be the largest deficit-reduction measure in a decade. “We are on the cusp of making health care reform a reality,” he said. “With today’s developments, it now appears that the American people will have the vote they deserve on genuine reform that offers security to those who have health insurance and affordable options for those who do not.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation would offer a decrease in the deficit of $132 billion over the first decade, and more than $1 trillion in the 10 years after that, Obama said at a brief news conference.

The new cost for the revised Senate bill is $871 billion, the CBO said. The previous price tag was $848 billion.

But Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, said the latest version of the Senate health care bill “is a legislative train wreck of historic proportions.”

“If they were proud of this bill they wouldn’t be doing it this way,” McConnell said. “They wouldn’t be jamming it through in the middle of the night on the last weekend before Christmas.”

McConnell said the legislation “will have a profound impact on our nation. This is not renaming a post office. Make no mistake, this bill will reshape our nation and our lives.”

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)