by Angie Pollock

Created on: March 22, 2010   Last Updated: March 30, 2010

The health care bill was officially passed even with the many protests by Americans across the country.  But many groups such as the Tea Party and Coffee Party have said that this is not the end of the road.  Many Americans want their voices to be heard and they are taking the message straight to the voting booth.  On the other side, those who were for the health care bill also want to vote for those politicians that supported their views.  In order to make a wise choice when casting your votes, you will need to know who voted for and against the health care bill.

The roll call for the health care reform bill came in at 219 votes for and 212 votes against the bill according to Fox News.  Both CNN and the NY Times reported the voting at 220 to 215 with one republican voting for the bill although this number is incorrect according to Bloomberg.com and most other reputable sources. 

The easy part is that all of politicians who voted for the health care reform bill were democrats.  There were some news outlets reporting that Representative Joe Cao, a republican from Louisiana voted "yes" which later turned out to be false.  On the “No” side were the republicans and a small portion of democrats.  Fox News has provided a breakdown of all those serving in the 435 seat House by state which at the time of the vote had 4 vacancies.   Bloomberg.com has the complete list of each house member and how they voted.

So while the roll call is easy on the republican side – none of them voted for the health care reform, you might be wondering which 34 democrats said “no way” to this costly government measure.  Representative Stupak who was holding out until the end ultimately voted for the health care bill.  “The Hill” has a full list of those 34 democrats that voted against this expensive health care bill.

The democrats who voted against the health care reform bill hail from states across the country.  One of the biggest issues that concerned both democrats and republicans was the issue of government-paid abortions.  According to Fox News, “The Senate bill allows insurance companies who participate in a planned government-run exchange to provide abortions…”

Without a doubt, this was one of the most highly-watched and anticipated votes in history.  Americans waited for the results until the very end – some Americans are hopeful that this bill will help end some of the troubles plaguing health care in the US.  However, most polls show that a majority of Americans were against this wheeling and dealing bill that they believe will only add to the economic problems that are troubling the United States today.

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/07/health.care/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/21/house-lea ders-make-impassioned-pleas-final-health-care-vote/

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