US passes historic health reforms

Legislation will extend health insurance to nearly all American citizens.

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The law to extend basic healthcare to more than 30 million Americans has been passed by a vote of 219 to 212 in the US House of Representatives.

Members of Congress and the US public have debated changes in the bill for months, with intense negotiations on Capitol Hill in recent weeks resulting in a legislative win for Barack Obama, the US president, after just 15 months in office.

Obama said it was not a “victory for anyone party, but it was a victory for the American people, and a victory for common sense”, in what is to become the United States’ first social healthcare policy in 45 years.

Rosiland Jordan has this report.

Source: Al Jazeera