Obama calls on Democrats

President Barack Obama

In what was a rare weekend session for the Senate to debate and vote in a bid to get a healthcare bill completed by the end of the month, President Barack Obama appeared to persuade Senate Democrats to support his healthcare plans.

Obama urged his Democratic Party senators to "get the job done," the BBC said.

The weekend session was called as Democrats are divided over abortion and whether to allow the government to compete with private companies to sell insurance.

During the session, Obama delivered a closed-door pep talk to the fractious Democratic caucus that lasted about 45 minutes, Associated Press said.

Max Baucus

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, a key author of the healthcare overhaul, said Obama had told the senators that the public would reward Democrats for decades if the reform got through.

"You could tell it had an effect," Baucus said.

Harry Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who invited Obama to the meeting, said that Republicans wanted this to be "President Obama's Waterloo", adding: "It's not going to be."

Reid has 58 Democrats and two independents in the Democratic caucus. He may be able to get one or two Republican votes, at the most. He is still short of the 60 votes he needs to shut off debate and move to a final up-or-down vote on the bill.

At Reid's request, moderate and liberal lawmakers are trying to find a compromise on the government insurance plan that could also potentially attract Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the one Republican to vote for the Democrats' health bill in committee.

Discussion

A new idea under discussion involves national nonprofit insurance plans that would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the popular Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Snowe called the possible compromise "a positive development" as it would give consumers more options for buying insurance.

Obama has called the healthcare overhaul bill the "most important piece of domestic legislation since Social Security," which was signed into law in 1935. He has said the legislation would be something talked about decades from now.

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