Obama hails healthcare vote
Updated on 24 December 2009
US President Barack Obama says his country is "incredibly close" to making health insurance reform a reality after the senate passes its healthcare bill.
The bill, which was agreed along party lines by 60 votes to 39 in the upper house, is designed to provide tens of millions of uninsured Americans with health cover, in the biggest shake-up of America's healthcare system in decades.
The early-morning Christmas eve vote in Washington followed months of political wrangling in the US Congress, which has dented President Obama's approval ratings.
There will now be tough negotiations with the House of Representatives, which approved its own bill last month. Both bills are different, adopting different approaches to tax, abortion and a government-run insurance scheme.
Negotiators from both houses will have to agree a single bill, which will then be considered again by the senate and the house before being sent to President Obama to sign into law.
The battle is far from over, with the Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell warning "my colleagues and I will work to stop this bill from becoming law".
The Christmas eve senate session - the first since 1895 - fulfilled a pledge by senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to pass the bill before Christmas. Republican opponents delayed the final vote to the last day possible under senate rules, but agreed to an early-morning vote to let people head home for Christmas.
The bill would extend health cover to more than 30 million uninsured people, covering 94 per cent of all Americans, and ensure that those with pre-existing medical conditions are not refused insurance.
It would also require most Americans to have insurance and give subsidies to help some pay for cover. Achieving a result would be a victory for President Obama, whose approval ratings in some polls have fallen to around 50 per cent.
