US Senate Passes Health Care Bill

After almost a month of debating the fate of the health care bill, the US Senate has finally decided on passing the historic $871 billion health care reform on Thursday. Must be a great Christmas present for President Obama, who said that the country is now close to making “health insurance reform a reality”.

The bill was passed with a 60-39 vote, which was a big victory for the Democrats but a clear bitter pill for Republicans, who ALL opposed the measure. Almost all senators were present for the vote except for Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky (R), who was a very outspokenly against the bill.

The next stop is to merge the health care bill with a $1 trillion plan that was already approved by the House of Representatives last November. The bill aims to provide insurance coverage to 31 million Americans who are currently without one.