WASHINGTON, March 22, (RTRS): US President Barack Obama secured a landmark victory with the US House of Representatives giving final approval to a sweeping healthcare overhaul, expanding insurance coverage to nearly all Americans.
Health insurers’ stock rose in opening trading on Monday, while the broader market slipped.
On a 219-212 vote late on Sunday, House Democrats approved the most dramatic US health policy changes in four decades. The vote sends the bill, already passed by the Senate, to Obama to sign into law.
The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index of health insurers was up 0.9 percent. The S&P Health Care Sector index was up 0.4 percent.
Large insurers WellPoint Inc and UnitedHealth Group rose slightly, while insurers such as Amerigroup and Molina Healthcare that focus on Medicaid plans for low-income Americans climbed sharply.
The health insurance industry vigorously opposed the overhaul. Insurance stocks rallied late last week as investors began to realize their worst fears had not materialized.

The overhaul will extend health coverage to 32 million Americans, expand the government health plan for the poor, impose new taxes on the wealthy and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.
The vote capped a year-long political battle with Republicans that consumed the US Congress and dented Obama’s approval ratings, and fulfilled a goal that had eluded many presidents for a century — most recently Democrat Bill Clinton in 1994.
“It’s a major step for a lot of middle class Americans who right now face bankruptcy because of unpaid health bills or are terrified their kids are going to get into an accident or can’t go to a doctor,” Obama’s health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday in an interview with MSNBC.
“So it provides some health security for the first time ever in this country,” Sebelius said.
“Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics,” Obama said during a late-night appearance at the White House.
“This legislation will not fix everything that ails our healthcare system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what change looks like,” he said.
House Democrats hugged and cheered in celebration as their vote count hit the magic number of 216, and chanted: “Yes we can.” Every Republican opposed the bill, and 34 Democrats joined them in voting against it.

Republican and industry critics said the $940 billion bill was a heavy-handed intrusion in the healthcare sector that will drive up costs, increase the budget deficit and reduce patients’ choices.
Both parties geared up for another battle over the healthcare bill in the campaign leading up to November’s congressional elections, and opponents across the country promised to challenge the legislation on the state level.
The healthcare revamp, Obama’s top domestic priority, would usher in the biggest changes in the $2.5 trillion US healthcare system since the 1965 creation of the government-run Medicare health program for the elderly and disabled.
It would require most Americans to have health coverage, give subsidies to help lower-income workers pay for coverage and create state-based exchanges where the uninsured can compare and shop for plans.
Major provisions such as the exchanges and subsidies would not kick in until 2014, but many of the insurance reforms like barring companies from dropping coverage for the sick will begin in the first year.
House Democrats also approved a package of changes to the Senate bill late on Sunday. The Senate will take up that package this week under budget reconciliation rules requiring a simple majority to pass.
The changes include elimination of a controversial Senate deal exempting Nebraska from paying for Medicaid expansion costs, the closure of a “doughnut hole” gap in prescription drug coverage and modifications to a tax on high-cost “Cadillac” insurance plans.
Republicans said they would challenge those changes in the Senate through parliamentary points of order and believed they could block its passage.
“Senate Republicans will now do everything in our power to replace the massive tax hikes, Medicare cuts and mandates with the reforms our constituents have been calling for throughout this debate,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said.
“I want to thank every member of Congress who stood up tonight with courage and conviction to make health care reform a reality,” Obama said. “I know this wasn’t an easy vote for a lot of people. But it was the right vote.”

Congressional officials said they expect Obama to sign the main bill as early as Tuesday.
Obama will travel outside Washington on Thursday as he now turns to seeing the companion bill through the Senate and selling the health care overhaul’s benefits on behalf of House lawmakers who cast risky votes.
The president watched the House vote Sunday from the White House with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in — the magic number needed for passage — the room burst into applause and hugs. An exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
Overturning the plan, which the president was expected to sign as early as Tuesday, was a mathematical impossibility in this election cycle because Republicans cannot win the two-thirds majority needed to override Obama’s veto.
And the Senate rules for taking up the measure make it unlikely Republicans can block the measure, though they could force a change that would require another politically difficult House vote.
Republicans planned to offer a series of carefully targeted amendments aimed at turning up the heat on swing-district Democrats, then gauge their members’ appetite for a free-for-all fight against the bill, two party sources said.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton said Monday that her boss President Barack Obama’s health care triumph proved he could stick with a tough job — suggesting he would bring similar resolve to ensuring Israel’s security.
The US Secretary of State told the powerful US-Israel lobby that despite recent tensions between Washington and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the administration could be counted upon.
“From its first day, the Obama administration has worked to promote Israel’s security and long-term success,” Clinton said at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
“If you ever doubt the resolve of President Obama to stay with a job, look at what we got done for the United States last night when it came to passing quality affordable healthcare for everyone.”
“Let me assure you ... for President Obama and for me, and for this entire administration, our commitment to Israel’s security and Israel’s future is rock solid, unwavering, enduring, and forever.”