News Pres Obama Healthcare

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President Barack Obama, daughter Sasha Obama and wife

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WASHINGTON - After a hard fought victory in the House of Representatives to push for a major overhaul of the US medical system, President Barack Obama is bracing for an even tougher battle in the Senate over the reform measure.

“For years we’ve been told that this couldn’t be done,” Obama said Sunday in a Rose Garden appearance. “Moments like this are why they sent us here,” he said speaking of the American people.

“Given the heated and often misleading rhetoric surrounding this legislation, I know that this was a courageous vote for many members of Congress,” Obama said, “and I’m grateful to them and for the rest of their colleagues for taking us this far.”

“Now it falls on the United States Senate to take this baton and bring this effort over the finish line,” he said, conscious of the narrow 220-215 margin of the house vote with as many as 39 of the 258 Democrats voting against the bill.

“It’s too bad the president has to spend all this time trying to rustle up votes within his own party,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, “but I honestly believe the House vote gives us momentum that Sen. Reid is going to use when he talks to his colleagues about the legislation this week.”

Reid is hoping to bring the issue before the Senate in a week or so, but he has yet to put the finishing touches on the bill that will be the starting point of debate - a blend of differing versions produced by two committees, media reports said.

Final details have to be determined, but reports suggest both would require everyone to have health insurance, and set up a new insurance exchange to offer affordable policies for small businesses and individuals who do not get coverage from their employers, reports said.

They would also include the controversial government-run “public option” among the choices. However, Reid has said that his bill — in a concession to moderates — would allow states to “opt out” of offering the government plan. The Senate version may or may not include the House bill’s requirement that employers provide coverage for workers.

In another major difference, the Senate bill would offset the cost primarily with a tax on companies that offer very expensive health insurance policies. The House’s financing comes mostly from an income tax surcharge on upper-income people.

That disparity will be among the biggest issues to be ironed out when, after the Senate passes its version, negotiators in a House-Senate conference committee write the final bill. Both houses have to again approve an identical bill before it goes to Obama to sign it into a law.