Thank you, Senator Snowe

GOP Senator Olympia Snowe will vote today to move healthcare reform legislation out of the Finance Committee:

“Is this bill all that I want? Far from it,” Ms. Snowe said. “Is it all that it can be? Far from it. But when history calls, history calls.”

Ms. Snowe’s speech, shortly before the lunch break, came as the Senate Finance Committee edged closer to approving legislation that would reshape the American health care system and provide subsidies to help millions of people buy insurance....

But Ms. Snowe, the one Republican who expressed willingness to support the bill, had kept her colleagues — and the nation — in suspense. But on Tuesday she said she would vote to advance the legislation, saying the consequences of inaction were far too great.

With its vote, expected in the afternoon, the Finance Committee would become the fifth Congressional panel to report out sweeping health care legislation that President Obama says is his top domestic priority.

“All Americans should have access to affordable quality health care coverage,” the Finance Committee chairman, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, said in opening remarks. “Now is the time to get this done.”

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THE NEW YORK TIMES also has an interactive comparison of the various healthcare reform proposals; you can click on various categories like "Individual Mandates" and "What It Will Cost" to see the specifics for each.