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RIO GRANDE VALLEY -- Saturday night the House of Representatives passed the Health Care reform bill by a vote of 220-215

It was history in the making, Saturday night the House of Representatives voted to pass their health insurance reform bill.
           
Despite countless attempts for over 100 years, no chamber of congress has ever before passed health reform.

In the Valley many may believe that the bill could be a good idea and Joe Garcia, a Health Care Nurse, couldn’t agree more, he believes everyone should have an equal share of some sort of health care.

Garcia Said, "A large majority of the population is already on some sort of government assisted health care anyway, I think a lot of other people should also have access or at least have the option to be under government funded healthcare."

We also had the chance to speak to a local Dr. Lawrence Gelman said as a result the valley could see a downturn in jobs.

"You lose jobs, you lose businesses and when that happens, that’s just bad for everybody" said Dr. Gelman.

Dr. Gelman believes that the bill needs to be changed because nobody has the same needs and that’s something he wants people from Washington to understand.

"A community like ours which is a growing population with a lot of children relatively young, with a significant amount of health care population, is going to be hurt by the way the bill is structured at the present time” said Dr. Gelman

The Health Care Reform Bill is to expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured, by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient.
           
It includes a new public option to compete with private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance and it cannot deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

President Obama said he'd like to sign the health care bill into law by the end of January, but before that can happen the senate has to pass legislation and then must negotiate with the house before sending anything to the President.