The law to extend basic healthcare to more than 30 million Americans has been passed by a vote of 219 to 212 in the House of Representatives.<br /><br />Members of Congress and the US public have debated changes in the bill for months, with intense negotiations on Capitol Hill in recent weeks resulting in a legislative win for Barack Obama, the US president, after just 15 months in office.<br /><br />Obama said it was not a "victory for anyone party, but it was a victory for the American people, and a victory for common sense", in what is to become the United States' first social healthcare policy in 45 years.<br /><br />Rosiland Jordan has this report.
