A SQUEAKER:

THE VOTE:  220-215

They needed 218; they got 220.  The landmark health-care reform bill now goes to the Senate.

The Stupak Amendment, which took federally-funded abortions out of this bill, was considered the key in getting the final needed votes to get to the 218 needed to pass.

GOP Chairman Michael Steele says, "If the Senate has any common sense at all, this bill won't see the light of day."

You knew House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn't have called the bill if she didn't know she had the votes.

After months of contintious health-care townhall meetings across the country, the Democrat-led House of Representatives passes  the Healthcare Reform Bill; now it goes to the Senate.

Some facts and questions:

• $1.2 Trillion (what's the guess the cost will be much more than this?)
• Paid Abortions taken out
• Insurance for illegal immigrants taken out
• Americans will be forced to buy insurance polities
• Public Option-Yes
• 96% of citizens under 65 will be insured
• Will this mean we will lose our current coverage and our doctors?

VIDEO HERE

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government's mandates.

Insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions would be banned, and insurers would no longer be able to charge higher premiums on the basis of gender or medical history. In a further slap, the industry would lose its exemption from federal antitrust restrictions on price gouging, bid rigging and market allocation.

At its core, the measure would create a federally regulated marketplace where consumers could shop for coverage. In the bill's most controversial provision, the government would sell insurance, although the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that premiums for it would be more expensive than for policies sold by private firms.

The bill is projected to expand coverage to 36 million uninsured, resulting in 96 percent of the nation's eligible population having insurance.

To pay for the expansion of coverage, the bill cuts Medicare's projected spending by more than $400 billion over a decade. It also imposes a tax surcharge of 5.4 percent on income over $500,000 in the case of individuals and $1 million for families.