Uncle $ugar just loves to help out whoever is squealing the loudest. Some largess comes to those in "need" via a blanket bailout. These are truly rare though. The number 60 (or 60%) is important in Congress. This is the "super majority" threshold number of members required to vote on a growing number of actions. It is also the number needed to override the filibusters, and bring an action to a floor vote. If all Democrats (and every independent vote together), Republicans basically do not have a voice.
The House and the Senate "Health Care Bills" needed 60 votes (or 60%) to get over the first hurdles. Most party loyalists fell in line and voted the way Pelosi and Reid wanted. There were however a few holdouts which sold out (or rather extorted their votes) for the fat cats back home. This porcine greed ranged from limiting the cutbacks in medicine payments to a decline of a mere $100 billion (when four times that was possible).
30 to 50 million people will be required to buy insurance from the existing insurers, or pay up to 8% of their wages as a penalty.
One major insurer got a permanent exemption from penalties; it faced from the beneficiaries of their "golden policies" and Illinois got, well, a Federal Prison!
Ah, politics!
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