House Democrats Approve Health-Care Reform Bill

$940 billion overhaul would give 32 million more Americans access to health insurance

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

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SUNDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- After a year of fierce partisan debate, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives late Sunday night passed the landmark $940 billion health-care reform bill, which would extend health insurance coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting medical conditions and cut the federal deficit by an estimated $138 billion over the next decade.

The bill, the most sweeping social legislation since the Great Society programs of the 1960s and the centerpiece of the first year of President Barack Obama's administration, also represents a milestone -- near universal health insurance -- that has eluded presidents since Theodore Roosevelt more than a century ago.

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The final tally, which adhered almost entirely along party lines, was 219 "yes" votes and 212 "no" votes. Not one Republican voted for the measure, which was a vote on a similar bill already approved by the Senate.

Many Democrats who supported the bill called it a long overdue achievement that will provide quality health care to virtually all Americans.

"Health care isn't only a civil right, it's a moral issue," Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., said before the vote. He said his late father, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., had worked his whole career for nationwide health care, as had President John F. Kennedy before him, the Associated Press reported.

Republicans criticized the bill as an unwarranted intrusion by the federal government into health care that would cut Medicare and raise taxes by nearly $1 trillion combined. Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., who was critical of the Democrats' parliamentary maneuverings before the vote, said "the greatest outrage has always been for the bill itself," the AP said.

The outcome of the vote was uncertain as late as Sunday afternoon, with some conservative Democrats withholding their support because of concerns that the bill would allow the use of federal dollars to pay for abortions. When Obama promised to issue an executive order "to ensure that federal funds are not used for abortion services," passage of the bill was all but guaranteed.

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