US House of Representatives Passes Health Care Bill

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The Washington Post reports:

Hours after President Obama exhorted Democratic lawmakers to “answer the call of history,” the House hit an unprecedented milestone on the path to health-care reform, approving a trillion-dollar package late Saturday that seeks to overhaul private insurance practices and guarantee comprehensive and affordable coverage to almost every American.

Attention will now shift back to the Senate. If the Senate acts, negotiations to iron out differences between the two chambers could be wrenching. Among the toughest issues: whether the public option should include an “opt out” clause for states, as Reid has proposed; whether to require employers to provide coverage to their workers or take the less punitive approach preferred by Senate moderates; and whether to tax the rich or tax high-cost health-care policies, as the Senate proposed — a provision economists call the most important provisions in either bill for reining in costs.