By John Whitesides and Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats cleared the second of three 60-vote hurdles on President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul on Tuesday, moving the landmark legislation one step closer to Senate passage before Christmas.
For a second straight day, Democrats mustered 60 party-line votes to cut off debate on the healthcare bill and to move towards Senate passage over unanimous Republican opposition.
The last 60-vote hurdle will come on Wednesday, with a vote to pass the bill -- which requires a simple majority -- now scheduled for late on Christmas Eve on Thursday if Republicans use all their allotted debate time.
"The finish line is in sight," Democratic Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, told reporters. "Now we know with certainty we have the will to cross it."
The Senate also passed Democratic leader Harry Reid's 383-page amendment making final changes to the measure, including striking a government-run insurance plan and tightening restrictions on using federal funds for abortions.
Those changes helped secure the 60th vote for Democrats on Obama's top legislative priority, which aims to extend health insurance to more than 30 million uninsured.
It has consumed Congress for months, sparked intense political brawling and resulted in a gruelling schedule this week in which senators were summoned for votes after midnight and at daybreak.
"There is a lot of tension in the Senate," Reid said after the votes. "Let's just all try to get along. Let's try to work through this."
Once passed, the Senate bill must be melded with a version passed by the House of Representatives on November 7 in what promises to be a difficult negotiation. Both chambers must approve it again before sending it to Obama for his signature.
TOUGH TALKS
Democrats hope to complete House-Senate negotiations and send the bill to Obama before his State of the Union message in late January, although deadlines for finishing the healthcare package have been missed repeatedly.
But the negotiations could be tough, with clashes looming on issues like the government-run plan, which is in the House bill but not the Senate, abortion, and competing approaches on how to pay for the changes.
Republicans critics say the measure is an expensive and heavy-handed intrusion into the healthcare sector that will drive up costs, increase the budget deficit and reduce patients' choices.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate bill will cut the federal deficit by $132 billion (82.6 billion pounds) over 10 years, but critics argue the revenue increases and cost savings the bill calls for may never materialise.
Republicans also attacked special deals in the bill for senators like Democrat Ben Nelson, who backed it after winning extra money for his home state of Nebraska, and Democrat Chris Dodd, who faces a tough re-election fight in Connecticut and won money for a medical centre there.
"This bill is a mess, and so was the process that was used to get it over the finish line," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said. "Americans are outraged by the last-minute, closed-door, sweetheart deals that were made to gain the slimmest margin for passage."
The loss of even one Democrat would sink the plan in the 100-member Senate. Democrats control 60 votes, the exact number needed to overcome united Republican opposition.
The overhaul would spark the biggest changes in the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system since the 1965 creation of the government-run Medicare health program for the elderly.
The Senate bill would require most Americans to have insurance, extend coverage to 30 million uninsured and give subsidies to help some pay for it. It would also halt industry practices like refusing insurance to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
Obama said he will delay his planned Hawaiian vacation, scheduled to start on Wednesday, to wait for passage. Reid said Democrats were still trying to convince Republicans to allow a vote earlier than the night of Christmas Eve.
"I will not leave until my friends in the Senate have completed their work," Obama told reporters after a meeting with community bankers at the White House.
Obama has asked the Senate to finish by the end of the year to try to keep the issue from spilling into the November 2010 congressional election campaigns. Most opinion polls show the bill losing public support, with majorities now opposed to it.
(Editing by Arshad Mohammed, Vicki Allen and Paul Simao)
