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House narrowly approves health care bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of House members have voted to pass the health care bill. The vote is continuing.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Saturday to remake the nation’s health insurance system and take a major step toward universal coverage.
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Meeting in a rare weekend session that lasted more than 14 hours, the House approved a Democratic bill 220 to 215 that includes new mandates for benefits and a government-run plan for those who can’t afford private insurance.
Democratic leaders, who worked for weeks to round up enough votes, got help Saturday from President Barack Obama — who went to Capitol Hill to give a pep talk — and from a compromise with anti-abortion Democrats who wanted the bill to contain explicit prohibitions on government money being used to pay for abortions.
All five House members from Oklahoma voted against the bill and against the procedural "rule” allowing debate. Only one of the 177 Republicans in the House voted for the bill — Rep. Joseph Cao, of Louisiana — while 39 Democrats opposed it.
Hours before the vote, Obama met behind closed doors with Democratic lawmakers and urged them to make history.
"Most public servants pass through their entire careers without a chance to make as important a difference in the lives of their constituents and the life of this country,” Obama said at the White House after that meeting. "I urge members of Congress to rise to this moment.”
Though passage of the ambitious legislation marked a major milestone in the decades-long effort to achieve universal health care coverage, the bill is a long way from becoming law. Attention now shifts to the Senate, where prospects for a government-run health care plan, commonly referred to as a public option, are thought to be dim. The Senate could be weeks away from taking up its version of health care reform.
The House bill would expand greatly the number of Americans with health care coverage through a combination of mandates on businesses and individuals and through expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the nation’s poor.
Under the bill, businesses with annual payrolls exceeding $500,000 would have to provide coverage to their employees or pay a tax. That tax would reach 8 percent of payroll for businesses with annual payrolls greater than $750,000. Individuals also would have to buy insurance or pay a penalty.
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