The Senate Finance Committee has become the fifth and final congressional panel to approve legislation reforming the nation’s healthcare system. The $829 billion proposal would require almost all Americans to buy insurance or pay a penalty. The bill does not include a government-backed public option to compete with private insurers, instead proposing the establishment of nonprofit cooperatives. The measure passed by a vote of 14-to-9. Maine Senator Olympia Snowe was the lone Republican to vote with the panel’s Democratic majority. At the White House, President Obama hailed the measure’s approval.

President Obama: “It reins in some of the worst practices of the insurance industry, like the denial of coverage due to preexisting conditions. It also sets up an insurance exchange that will make coverage affordable for those who don’t currently have it. And as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has certified, it will slow the growth of healthcare costs in the long term, and it will not add a penny to our deficit.”