US House of Reps passes historic health care bill with implications for Pharma, but is this quite the end?

After a year-long process, the USA's House of Representatives yesterday - in an extremely unusual Sunday sitting - voted by just a slim majority of 219-212 passing revised bill health care reform cleared by the Senate last December and 219-212 on a companion bill, making changes to the earlier Senate bill.

This ostensibly marks success for President Barack Obama, who has made this the biggest issue of his presidential tenure, essentially provide a further 32 million Americans with health care coverage by establishing a new health insurance market plus coverage expansions to the Medicaid program, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade.

No Republicans voted for either bill, and there were significant protests outside the chamber as the vote was taking place, with arguments that the legislation will result in 'socialized' health care, is too costly (the latest revised estimate by the Congressional Budget Office being $940 billion; TPL March 17) and is a vote for taxpayer-funded abortion which, in the USA, is an extremely contentious issue. Moreover, opposition among rank and file Democrats and undecided voters could well be reflected later this year in the mid-term elections scheduled for November.