And Ben Nelson Makes 60!

A deal was struck last night about 10:30 by which Sen. Ben Nelson, the last holdout, will be able to support the Senate health care reform bill. The compromise required some tightening of abortion restrictions; here's Politico's description of the deal:

Nelson agreed to support the bill after Democrats strengthened restrictions on federal funding of abortion, by allowing states to opt out from allowing plans to cover abortion in a new insurance marketplace. Also, enrollees in plans covering abortion must pay separate checks – one for abortion, one for the rest of services.

The state opt-out language, according to The Atlantic, is as follows: "A state may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an exchange in such state if such state enacts a law to provide for such prohibition."

Apparently there was another sweetener for Nebraska: the federal government will pick up the state's costs for new Medicaid enrollees on a permanent basis (historically these costs have been split with the states). Under the Senate bill the feds would be assuming these additional costs for all states through 2017.

You can read Washington Post coverage of the Nelson deal here.