In a landmark change, the US has passed a bill which is likely to completely overhaul the country's healthcare system. But the legislation has its share of downside too.

Finally, the US, the largest national economy in the world, entered into the select group of civilized nations by passing a landmark legislation to bring nearly all its citizens under healthcare coverage. The long-awaited passage of the historic bill, which eluded even his distinguished predecessors such as Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, is indeed a masterstroke by the Afro-American Democratic President Barack Hussian Obama and is all set to rewrite the rules governing the healthcare system in the US. It broadens insurance coverage to 32 million more American citizens which means that 95% of those who legally belong to this country would have health insurance, up from 83% today, and marks the biggest change to the US healthcare system in more than four decades. Under the new legislation, health coverage will be extended to nearly all Americans, new taxes will be levied on the rich and insurance practices which refuse to cover people with pre-existing medical ailments will be prohibited.

Ever since entering into the White House, President Barack Obama made reform of the American healthcare system his top domestic priority. After a spate of intense debate, and last-minute appeals to Democrats from the President, the House of Representatives voted 219-212 in favor of the bill. Not only that no republican voted in favor of the legislation but also 34 Democrats joined hands with the Republicans in voting against the bill, and are now worried about paying a heavy political price in November's elections. Many experts greeted the bill as the much-needed historic extension to the 1965 creation of the Medicare program for the elderly and a way to curb mounting healthcare costs that accounts for one-sixth of the US economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi depicted the passage of the bill as "history for our country and progress for the American people." Now it is time to close all debates about the passage of the bill and to initiate the hard work of implementing this reform in earnest on behalf of the US citizens. "This year, and in years to come, we have a solemn responsibility to do it right," Obama added.

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