It was eleven months between introduction of the House bill and final passage and the key points in the bill were known by the fall of 2009. In the Senate, Max Baucus, began with a compromise -- using the framework of the 1993 Chafee bill co-sponsored by 20 GOP senators. It included an individual mandate, creation of purchasing pools, standardized benefits, vouchers for the poor to buy insurance, and a ban on denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition. That became Romneycare. Baucus brought together the so-called Gang of Six that included Grassley, Enzi, and Snowe. After more than a month of negotiations, the GOP members were told by McConnell that he did not want to hand Obama a victory. Snowe voted to move the bill out of the Finance Committee.
[Post edited by DanTheFan at 06/18/2017 10:16AM]