The Senate voted Thursday to pass sweeping legislation to reform the health care system in America.
By a vote of 60 to 39, the 58 Democrats and two independents voted to pass the measure over the united opposition of the chamber's Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that the vote was a critically important step in an ongoing process of working to improve a broken system.
"We will continue to build on this success, to improve our health system even more, and to further ease the terrible burdens on American families and businesses," Reid said, speaking on the Senate floor before the vote. "The American people and the American economy cannot afford for us to wait for next time - because there may not be a next time."
He added, "We certainly don't have the luxury of waiting until America becomes the only developed nation on earth where you can die for lack of health insurance - we already bear that blemish."
Reid stressed that the measure would safeguard citizens from having coverage dropped or denied based on pre-existing conditions or expensive diseases and strengthen Medicare by cutting costs that threaten to bankrupt the program.
He also pushed back against criticism from some Democrats and progressives who argued that the bill should be defeated because it did not go far enough in reigning in insurance companies and dropped a public, government-run alternative to private health insurance.
"We must strive for progress, and not surrender for want of purity. Our charge is to move forward," he said. "It is a tradition as old as this republic, one that has always comprised interests and opinions as diverse as the people who populate it."
He added, "The Founders did not promise to form an infallible new nation - they promised instead to promote the general welfare as we move toward a 'more perfect union.' They valued progress."
Republicans, however, decried the vote as a party line effort that fails its major goals of cutting costs for most Americans that was rushed to approval.
"The one test of success for any bill was whether it would lower costs. This bill fails that test," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "It's also clear that even many of the people who support this bill with their votes don't like it."
He added, "Otherwise, Democrat leaders wouldn't have had votes on it in the middle of the night, or at the crack of dawn, or over the weekend, or during a blizzard."
McConnell pledged to continue to resist the bill, which must still be reconciled with the version that passed the House.
"I guarantee you the people who voted for this bill are going to get an earful when they finally get home for the first time since Thanksgiving," he said. "They know there is widespread opposition to this monstrosity."
He added, "This fight isn't over. My colleagues and I will work to stop this bill from becoming law."
Reconciling the House and Senate versions of the bill is expected to be difficult, as several Senate moderates who supported the measure have threatened to withhold their support from the final bill if it comes back from conference with the House with substantial differences.
The House health reform measure, which differs from the Senate version both in the way reforms are paid for and by including a public option to compete with private insurers, also passed by a narrow 220 to 215 margin, with dozens of conservative Democrats threatening to withhold their support if the conference report weakens language restricting federal funding for abortions.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.