U.S. House Narrowly Passes Health Care Bill

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 8, 2009 6:00PM

By a narrow final margin of 220-215, the U.S. House passed the health care reform bill late last night. With the vote almost completely breaking along party lines, only one Republican - Joseph Cao of New Orleans, LA - voted yes while 39 Dems (none from Illinois) voted no. In an email statement, President Obama said, "This is a night to celebrate -- but not to rest. Those who voted for reform deserve our thanks, and the next phase of this fight has already begun.''

Next up is the U.S. Senate, which has its own bill. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is facing an uphill battle due to his supporting a public option, so there's still plenty of work to do. In spite of President Obama's hope that the final reform bill would be passed by Christmas, the Senate still has to negotiate and hammer out its own version of the bill to pass and then the two bills must be merged into on bill that will have to, once again, pass both houses.