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WASHINGTON -
The House of Representatives Saturday approved the most sweeping healthcare legislation since the creation of Medicare 44 years ago and gave an important boost to President Obama's campaign to guarantee health coverage to all Americans for the first time in history.
The gargantuan Democratic measure passed 220-215 with a single Republican vote, capping a contentious day-long debate that underscored the vast ideological divide separating the two parties over healthcare.
The bill includes an 11th hour compromise that would prohibit federally subsidized insurance plans from offering abortion services.
Although the Senate is still working on its healthcare bill, the House vote meant Democrats had cleared a critical hurdle - and reached a historic landmark: The party has been trying to extend the government's social safety net to include healthcare since the Great Depression.
The House plan would cover an additional 36 million people by 2019, leaving 4% of the nation without coverage, compared with the estimated 17% who do not have insurance now, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
"For generations, the American people have called for affordable, quality healthcare for their families. Today, the call will be answered," said Pelosi, who rallied her members behind the legislation after weeks of cajoling and deal-making.
Republicans, who have fought Obama's healthcare campaign for most of the year, charged Democrats with pushing the nation toward government-run healthcare and threatening to bankrupt the treasury at a time when the deficit is skyrocketing.
"People have a grave concern about what Washington is doing to them, not for them," Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said Saturday, citing last week's GOP electoral victories in Virginia and New Jersey.
Louisiana Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao was the only Republican to cross the aisle and vote for the bill. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against it.
The legislation - which includes more than $1 trillion of new healthcare spending over the next decade while also reducing the deficit by an estimated $106 billion - will ultimately have to be reconciled with the Senate bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is working to unite his members in time to hold a vote on the Senate bill before Christmas, a critical deadline if Democrats are to send healthcare legislation to Obama's desk by the end of January.
With the unemployment rate continuing to rise and the public increasingly jittery about Obama's healthcare campaign, Democrats are racing to push through an overhaul before what many see as a historic opportunity slips away.
Pelosi had hoped to get a bill through the House sooner than November. But she and her lieutenants had to spend months hammering out a series of difficult compromises to satisfy the liberal and conservative wings of the party.
New requirement on businesses and insurance companies have already alienated major industry groups, many of which actively fought the House bill, charging that it would actually make healthcare less affordable.
"The country needs to put in place a strategy to reduce medical costs, which are 50 percent higher than in any other industrialized country," America's Health Insurance Plans warned in a letter last week to leaders of the House.
But even as opposition to the bill has stiffened, Democratic leaders managed to diffuse major disagreements over the shape of a new government insurance plan and the scope of new income taxes on wealthy Americans.
They picked up major endorsements from the AARP and the American Medical Association, which joined a collection of leading consumer groups, patient groups and labor unions that have backed the healthcare campaign all year.
And facing the possible collapse of the legislation late Friday night, they brokered a deal to settle a debate within Democratic ranks over abortion.
Under pressure from a group of socially conservative Democrats and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pelosi and other lawmakers who favor abortion rights were forced to accept a last minute compromise that placed tight restrictions on federal funding for abortion services.
The amendment was added to the bill Saturday by a coalition of 240 Republicans and conservative Democrats; 194 Democrats voted against the amendment.
The gargantuan Democratic measure passed 220-215 with a single Republican vote, capping a contentious day-long debate that underscored the vast ideological divide separating the two parties over healthcare.
The bill includes an 11th hour compromise that would prohibit federally subsidized insurance plans from offering abortion services.
Although the Senate is still working on its healthcare bill, the House vote meant Democrats had cleared a critical hurdle - and reached a historic landmark: The party has been trying to extend the government's social safety net to include healthcare since the Great Depression.
The House plan would cover an additional 36 million people by 2019, leaving 4% of the nation without coverage, compared with the estimated 17% who do not have insurance now, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
"For generations, the American people have called for affordable, quality healthcare for their families. Today, the call will be answered," said Pelosi, who rallied her members behind the legislation after weeks of cajoling and deal-making.
Republicans, who have fought Obama's healthcare campaign for most of the year, charged Democrats with pushing the nation toward government-run healthcare and threatening to bankrupt the treasury at a time when the deficit is skyrocketing.
"People have a grave concern about what Washington is doing to them, not for them," Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said Saturday, citing last week's GOP electoral victories in Virginia and New Jersey.
Louisiana Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao was the only Republican to cross the aisle and vote for the bill. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against it.
The legislation - which includes more than $1 trillion of new healthcare spending over the next decade while also reducing the deficit by an estimated $106 billion - will ultimately have to be reconciled with the Senate bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is working to unite his members in time to hold a vote on the Senate bill before Christmas, a critical deadline if Democrats are to send healthcare legislation to Obama's desk by the end of January.
With the unemployment rate continuing to rise and the public increasingly jittery about Obama's healthcare campaign, Democrats are racing to push through an overhaul before what many see as a historic opportunity slips away.
Pelosi had hoped to get a bill through the House sooner than November. But she and her lieutenants had to spend months hammering out a series of difficult compromises to satisfy the liberal and conservative wings of the party.
New requirement on businesses and insurance companies have already alienated major industry groups, many of which actively fought the House bill, charging that it would actually make healthcare less affordable.
"The country needs to put in place a strategy to reduce medical costs, which are 50 percent higher than in any other industrialized country," America's Health Insurance Plans warned in a letter last week to leaders of the House.
But even as opposition to the bill has stiffened, Democratic leaders managed to diffuse major disagreements over the shape of a new government insurance plan and the scope of new income taxes on wealthy Americans.
They picked up major endorsements from the AARP and the American Medical Association, which joined a collection of leading consumer groups, patient groups and labor unions that have backed the healthcare campaign all year.
And facing the possible collapse of the legislation late Friday night, they brokered a deal to settle a debate within Democratic ranks over abortion.
Under pressure from a group of socially conservative Democrats and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pelosi and other lawmakers who favor abortion rights were forced to accept a last minute compromise that placed tight restrictions on federal funding for abortion services.
The amendment was added to the bill Saturday by a coalition of 240 Republicans and conservative Democrats; 194 Democrats voted against the amendment.
