Don Walton: Ben Nelson is cameo star in new Obamacare book | State and Regional News

Ben Nelson reflects on his time in the U.S. Senate during an interview at his Omaha home in 2019.

GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star

DON WALTON Lincoln Journal Star

Ben Nelson plays a key role in providing the most informative and readable portrayal of the struggle to get the Affordable Care Act passed, contained in a new book called The Ten Year War.

Jonathan Cohn, a senior national correspondent for the Huffington Post, introduces us to the tense battle in Congress and offers a historical perspective as we explore the “unfinished crusade for universal (health) reporting.”

Nelson takes only a few pages, but Nebraska’s former Democratic Senator emerges as the man who opened the door when the health care reform bill appeared to be trapped by a Senate filibuster.

It is “the last meeting place in the democratic caucus,” writes Cohn, a senator who wanted no public option in the bill, a carefully tailored abortion language, and a Medicaid extension only as an option for states.

It was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, not Nelson, who ultimately proposed that the federal government assume all of the cost of Medicaid’s expansion in Nebraska, Cohn writes.

The deal was hit and Nelson cast the 60th critical vote to break the Senate filibuster on Christmas Eve morning.

And a new term, “the Cornhusker Kickback”, was born.

Nelson later said he intended to use the Nebraska provision as a placeholder that could allow the same business to be expanded to other states. It was eventually removed from the package agreed by the Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by President Barack Obama.