Democrats in the House of Representatives delivered a hard-fought victory in President Obama’s year-long fight to overhaul the health care system by passing the Senate’s version of healthcare reform legislation on a 219-212 vote, placing the bill square on President Obama’s desk for a signature.

Although the majority of the of the bill has passed both houses of congress and will be enacted into law when President Obama signs the legislation, a reconciliation package of amendments will be sent to the Senate to resolve disagreements between the house and senate bills. The Senate will likely approve the legislation under a reconciliation process that can be passed by a simple filibuster-proof majority vote.

Democrats made the healthcare overhaul the centerpiece of their domestic agenda for the 2010 midterm elections. Republicans are largely against the legislation claiming that it is too expensive and broadens government powers too much. They argue that Democrats shoved the legislation through and ignored policy suggestions from the GOP. Democrats say that Republicans have refused to negotiate on the bill in hopes of gaining a political defeat for President Obama.

Democratic leaders hailed the passage of healthcare overhaul as historic legislation which was on par with the enactment of Social Security after the Great Depression and the implementation f Medicare in the 1960’s.

A key development in the political process occurred Sunday afternoon when President Obama issued an executive order stating that the healthcare bill would not interfere on an existing ban on federal funding for abortions. After the executive order conservative democrat Bart Stupak and six other Democrats agreed to vote for the legislation, paving the way for the passage of the Senate’s health care package in the House of Representatives, leading the way for President Obama to sign the legislation