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Health Reform ScorecardSen. Byron Dorgan makes his pitch for importing prescription drugs.

By Timothy NoahUpdated Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009, at 9:28 PM ET

Click here for a guide to following the health care reform story online.

John McCain. Slate is keeping a cumulative daily scorecard of health reform amendments brought up on the Senate floor. They are presented here with sponsors' names, plain-English descriptions, links to texts and summaries, and roll call votes, with the most recent at the top. Hard-core information junkies will find even more recent (but less complete) information on the Senate calendar, Senate log of roll call votes, and Senate Web page for legislation and records. To watch the Senate floor proceedings live, click here.

  • Republican Mike Crapo's motion to strip the bill of any provisions that will result in a tax increase for individuals earning less than $200,000 or families earning less than $250,000 (text, floor statement). The obvious point of this amendment was to embarrass President Obama for violating his promise that health care wouldn't impose taxes on this group (which, for the most part, it won't). Failed Dec. 15, 45-54.
  • Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan's amendment (2793) allowing the importation of drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (text, press statement). This is a popular consumer cause, favored as a cost-saving measure by Sen. John McCain, among others. But Margaret Hamburg, President Obama's commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, opposes it on safety and other grounds. Hamburg's opposition is embarrassing for Obama because he supported this reform during the 2008 campaign and, as a senator, co-sponsored Dorgan's bill. But in July the Obama White House struck a bargain with the pharmaceutical industry to limit the bill's cost to drug companies to $80 billion and to block certain measures, including the reimportation of drugs. (Whether this last promise was explicit is unclear; drug industry lobbyist Billy Tauzin told the Los Angeles Times that it was, but the L.A. Times subsequently suggested it was merely implied.) In exchange, Big Pharma gave its support to health reform. It was a bad deal. Failed Dec. 15, 51-48. (This amendment required 60 votes to pass.)
  • Republican Sen. John McCain's motion (text, floor statement) to send the bill back to the finance committee so it can extend to all Medicare Advantage beneficiaries the special deal Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson won for his Florida constituents. Score one for McCain: This amendment (which will not pass) shines a spotlight on a cheesy political bargain. Nelson, after trying unsuccessfully in the finance committee to "grandfather" (i.e., maintain for existing beneficiaries) benefit levels for all current Medicare Advantage recipients, got a narrower provision inserted providing relief to Medicare Advantage recipients living in certain "local areas" as determined by a complex formula that fits South Florida like a glove. McCain is in effect saying: Hey pal, share the wealth! Can you blame him? The motion failed Dec. 8, 42-57.
  • Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson's amendment (2962), modeled on Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak's amendment to the House bill, effectively barring health insurers from selling policies through the exchange that cover abortion (press statement, text). Set aside Dec. 8, 54-45.
  • Republican Sen. Judd Gregg's amendment (2942) (text, press statement) requiring Medicare savings to be used to "save Medicare." Gregg is the author of a Dec. 1 letter to fellow Republicans offering parliamentary tips on how to obstruct health reform. So don't waste too much attention on this. Failed Dec. 7, 43-56.
  • Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor's amendment (2939) (text, press statement) requiring the Health and Human Services secretary to collect through an Internet portal information about enrollee satisfaction with health plans offered through the proposed insurance exchange. Passed Dec. 7, 98-0.
  • Republican Sen. John Ensign's amendment (2927) limiting contingency fees to malpractice lawyers to one-third of any awards of $150,000 or less and one-quarter of any awards of more than $150,000 (text, press release). Not an entirely terrible idea. Failed Dec. 6, 32-66.
  • Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln's amendment (2905) limiting the tax deductibility of health insurers' executive compensation to $400,000, down from the current $1 million (text, press statement). Applies only to health insurers participating significantly in the exchanges. Failed Dec. 6, 56-42. (This amendment required 60 votes to pass.)
  • Democratic Sen. John Kerry's amendment (2926) stating health reform won't cut home health benefits. This amendment is meant to suggest that Sen. Mike Johanns' motion (see below) was unnecessary (text). Passed Dec. 5, 96-0.
  • Republican Mike Johanns' motion (text, floor statement) to strip from the health reform bill $42 billion in cuts to home health care agencies. Failed Dec. 5, 41-53.
  • Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow's amendment (2899) guaranteeing that participants in the privately managed Medicare Advantage program won't lose basic Medicare benefits under health reform (text, press statement). What's unsaid is that many Medicare Advantage participants will lose benefits that they receive above and beyond those basic benefits. But that's only fair. Medicare Advantage, a failed 2003 experiment in market economics, receives 14 percent more on average, per enrollee, than the regular Medicare program. The health reform bill would eliminate that discrepancy. In June, the government's Medicare Payment Advisory Commission concluded the current arrangement is "unfair to taxpayers and beneficiaries not enrolled in [Medicare Advantage] plans who subsidize those payments." The Stabenow amendment passed Dec. 4, 97-1.
  • Republican Sen. John Thune's amendment (2901) removing Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS), a proposed new voluntary program for nursing-home and other long-term care insurance, from the bill (text, floor statement). Failed Dec. 4, 51-47. (This amendment required 60 votes to pass.)
  • Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's amendment (2780) requiring that any surpluses generated by health reform for Social Security or CLASS be reserved for those programs (text, press statement). Passed Dec. 4, 98-0.
  • Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch's motion to strip the bill of cuts to the privately administered Medicare Advantage program (text, press statement). Failed Dec. 4, 41-57.
  • Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet's amendment (2826) reassuring everybody that nothing in the bill will cut Medicare, hence there's no need to strip anything out; see McCain amendment, below (text, press statement). Passed Dec. 3, 100-0.
  • Republican Sen. John McCain's motion to strip the bill of Medicare cuts (text, press statement). McCain proposed more than twice as many Medicare cuts to fund his own health plan during the 2008 election. McCain is unbelievably touchy about this! His amendment failed Dec. 3, 42-58.
  • Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski's amendment (2836) barring the U.S. Preventive Task Force from being used to deny coverage for anything (text, press statement). Failed Dec. 3, 41-59.
  • Republican Sen. David Vitter's amendment (2808) amending Mikulski's amendment (see below) to prevent the United States Preventive Task Force from restricting mammograms (text, press statement), which it can't do anyway. (Vitter is a well-known feminist.) Passed by unanimous consent Dec. 2.
  • Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski's amendment (2791) to expand preventive health screenings for women (text, summary). Passed Dec. 3, 61-39.

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
Photograph of Carl Levin and John McCain by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images.
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