Late this evening, the House voted 219 to 212 to pass the health care reconciliation bill.  No Republicans voted for the bill and 34 Democrats also voted no.   From NPR News:

Capping a year of legislative activity and ending decades of Democratic frustration, the House on Sunday passed a bill designed to provide widespread health coverage to Americans.

"We have come to a defining moment in our nation's history," said James Clyburn (D-SC), the House Democratic whip. "This is the civil rights act of the 21st century."

As the GOP promised, not a single Republican voted for the measure. "This is truly a remarkable moment in the life of this nation. Some say we're making history. I say we're breaking history, breaking with our best traditions," said Mike Pence (R-IN), who chairs the House GOP Conference. "Only in Washington, D.C, can you spend a trillion dollars and say that you're saving the taxpayers money."

The AMA has announced its qualified support of passage of health system reform legislation that the U.S. House of Representatives that on Sunday, March 21, is expected to go up for a vote. From the AMA letter of support to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:

By extending coverage to the vast majority of the uninsured, improving competition and choice in the insurance marketplace, promoting prevention and wellness, reducing administrative burdens, and promoting clinical comparative effectiveness research, we believe that H.R. 3590 does, in fact, improve the ability of patients and their physicians to achieve better health outcomes.

As the House debate on the health bill heads into late evening, the rhetoric is just as divided along partisan lines as the final vote will be.

Democrats appear confident that they will have the 216 votes needed to pass a pair of bills designed to provide near-universal health insurance coverage. Republicans, who are unanimous in their opposition, have described the bills as "a disgrace."

The quest for widespread health care coverage has gone on for a century. Democrats are highly aware that they are about to prevail on a historic vote, making references to past landmark legislation such as Social Security and figures such as Martin Luther King Jr.

In good news for Democrats, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has released its analysis of the compromise health care bill.  The Democratic health care bill would cost $940 billion over 10 years but would also cut the federal deficit over the next two decades -- figures that should help ease the worries of fiscal hawks who have been reluctant about supporting the sweeping measure.

The bill would reduce the deficit by $138 billion in the first 10 years and by $1.2 trillion over the second 10 years, while expanding health coverage to 95% of Americans. 

Congressional Budget Office releases health bill estimates -Politico, March 19, 2010. 

For the  CBO report, click here. 

House leaders announced a $940 billion compromise bill that would extend coverage to the vast majority of Americans, cut billions of dollars from Medicare, and impose new taxes on the wealthy and the well-insured.  From The Washington Post:

The compromise would extend coverage to an additional 32 million Americans over the next decade by expanding Medicaid eligibility and creating state-run insurance exchanges and federal subsidies for lower-income families who lack access to employer-provided coverage.

All Americans would be required for the first time to obtain insurance or face an annual penalty of $695; employers could face penalties of $2,000 per worker for not offering affordable coverage. In exchange for the new business, private insurers would be subject to an array of rules, including a ban on the practice of denying coverage to people with preexisting medical conditions and a requirement that adult children be permitted to stay on their parents' policies until age 26.

Compared with the Senate bill, the compromise would offer more generous tax credits to people who may otherwise be unable to afford insurance and would fully close the "doughnut hole" -- a gap in the Medicare prescription drug program that is costly for many seniors -- beginning with a $250 rebate for those affected this year.

For the full story click here: House Leaders Announce $940 Billion Health Care Compromise Bill; The Washington Post - March 19, 2010

Related Coverage:

Fine-Tuning Led to Health Bill's $940 Billion Price Tag - The New York Times--March 19, 2010

Democrats Say Health Bill Will Pay for Itself in the Long Run; The New York Times - March 19, 2010

Coverage on President Obama's push for health care reform continues in all major media outlets.  In a speech on March 3, the president  urged lawmakers to bring the matter to a vote before the end of the month.    From The New York Times:

President Obama, beginning his final push for a health care overhaul, called Wednesday for Congress to allow an "up or down vote" on the measure, and sketched out an ambitious -- and, some Democrats said, unrealistic -- timetable for his party to pass a bill on its own within weeks.

States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform," Mr. Obama said during a 20-minute speech in the East Room of the White House. He said there was no point in starting over, as Republicans are demanding, and called on nervous Democrats to stick with him, declaring there was no reason "for those of us who were sent here to lead to just walk away."

The speech, less than a week after Mr. Obama held a high-profile televised health care forum, will usher in what White House officials say will be their last campaign to bring Washington's long and contentious health care debate to a close -- with a bill-signing ceremony at the end.

Read the full story here.

Related coverage:

Obama Health Care Speech:  It's Time to Act Now; The Huffington Post - March 4, 2010

 Health Reform's Reconciliation Ref - Alan Frumin; Time - March 3, 2010

Democrats Chase Health Care Votes; The Wall Street Journal - March 3, 2010

Nelson Defends Senate Health Bill, Signals Strong Backing for Reform; The Hill - March 3, 2010

Democrats Eye Health Care Finish; Roll Call - March 3, 2010

Political Punch; ABC News - March 2, 2010

Obama To Push Health Care Overhaul Into Final Act; Reuters - March 3, 2010

Democrats are moving forward on health care reform, even if it may cost some of them their congressional careers.  From The New York Times:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is confident she will be able to get the votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation in the House, even if it threatens the political careers of some members of her party.

In an interview carried Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Ms. Pelosi said she was working on changes to a Senate-passed bill that would make it acceptable to the House.

Among the criticisms of health care reform offered by Republicans, Tea Partiers, and others is that it is simply too costly.  But what is the cost of doing nothing?

"People think if we do nothing, we will have what we have now," said Karen Davis, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health care research group in New York. "In fact, what we will have is a substantial deterioration in what we have."

Nearly every mainstream analysis calls for medical costs to continue to climb over the next decade, outpacing the growth in the overall economy and certainly increasing faster than the average paycheck. Those higher costs will translate into higher premiums, which will mean fewer individuals and businesses will be able to afford insurance coverage. More of everyone's dollar will go to health care, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid will struggle to find the money to operate.

Coverage of the aftermath of the Health Care Summit is extensive, with most media outlets reporting that Democrats plan to move forward with the Obama plan with or without the help of Republicans but that it remains uncertain whether the necessary votes will materialize:

Obama, Democrats Ponder Next Health Care Moves; Reuters - February 26, 2010        

Now the White House and congressional Democrats are in the difficult position of deciding whether to force a reform of the $2.5 trillion U.S. health care system through Congress with a simple majority vote - a maneuver Republicans have condemned.

Obama Bipartisan Health Summit Clears Path to Party-Line Vote; The Bloomberg Report - February 26, 2010

President Obama began yesterday's health care summit saying he wanted to find bipartisan ways to fix the health care system. By the end of the health care summit, President Obama will pursue a partisan plan costing about $950 billion over 10 years and covering 31 million uninsured Americans.

After Summit Flop, Democrats Prepare to Go It Alone on Obamacare; The Washington Examiner - February 26, 2010

With no signs of compromise from either side in President Obama's health summit, Democrats prepared a final partisan push for their massive health care plan.

The Aftermath of the Health Care Summit:  Confusion, Conflict; Politico - February 26, 2010

Post summit means a democratic party looking to emerge with a clear sense of the path forward instead finding itself in the same old place - fighting the clock to finish health care, with an uncertain timeline, a complex legislative path and no idea if its leaders can muster the votes.