President Barack Obama today was to sign a landmark reform of the US health care system, the culmination of a year-long struggle that deeply divided the country and threatened to derail his vast domestic agenda, dpa reported. The seminal moment comes after the House of Representatives on Sunday approved a version of the health reforms passed by the Senate late last year. But a second package of changes also approved by the House will have to go through the Senate one last time this week. Obama planned to sign the legislation in the White House East Room before a handful of leading lawmakers from his Democratic Party and individual citizens whose cases he had highlighted on the health campaign trail throughout the year. Obama was later to give a speech at the Interior Department marking the occasion before a broader audience of about 500 lawmakers, health care professionals and lobbyists. Also planning to attend the White House ceremony was Vicky Kennedy, wife of the late senator Edward Kennedy who had made health reform his lifelong cause in the chamber but passed away in the summer before it could be realized. The sweeping overhaul is aimed at expanding health coverage to about 32 million uninsured Americans and bans certain practices of insurance companies, such as refusing to provide insurance to people with pre-existing health conditions. The legislation will also lower the federal budget over the next two decades and cut costs in a health system that engulfs 17 per cent of the US economy. Republicans have long opposed the reforms as a government takeover and rejected its claims of savings. Many members of the opposition party vowed this week to repeal the legislation if they regain the majority in Congress.
