Despite being rejected by representatives of the Ohio House, President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives Saturday by a vote of 220-215. Representatives from Ohio’s 2nd and 6th Districts, which divides Scioto County, stood equally divided on opposite sides of the bill.

The official title of the bill (HR 3962) reads “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.” The legislation will reportedly cost about $1 trillion over 10 years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said President Obama called many members of the House to congratulate them on a “great victory for the American people.” Ten representatives from Ohio, including Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-2nd), may not have gotten that call, though, after they voted against the bill Saturday. Only eight Ohio representatives — including Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-6th) — voted in favor of sending the bill for Senate approval.

“I am extremely disappointed by the bill that passed tonight (Saturday) in a partisan fashion,” Schmidt said. “I promise to work tirelessly to convince the Senate to abandon this awful piece of legislation and work toward a bipartisan solution that helps all Americans by actually reducing the cost of health insurance and not just reducing coverage and raising taxes.”

She warned that 17,000 seniors in Ohio’s 2nd District will lose their Medicare Advantage, in $500 billion worth of cuts, if the bill passes the Senate.

Wilson disagreed with Schmidt’s assessment and said the bill will cut long-term health care costs and reduce the deficit by $109 billion over the first 10 years. He said the bill would cover 96 percent of Americans and guarantee higher quality, lower cost health plans.

“Today I voted in favor of historic reforms to our nation’s health care industry,” Wilson said on Saturday. “I have long-said I would support a plan that brought stability and security to the health care system, lowered the cost of health care, and insured broader coverage, without increasing our deficit. After months of deliberation, with these conditions met, I proudly cast my vote for the Affordable Health Care for America Act.”

Only one Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA), voted for the health bill, while 39 Democrats (including two in Ohio) voted against. Though it failed in Ohio with a 10-8 vote, the bill needed only 218 total votes to pass the U.S. House and squeaked by with 220. The bill now goes for consideration before the U.S. Senate.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said he would like to have seen some things done differently in the bill, but overall he was happy with the version that passed the House.

“The Senate will start to debate a week from now, I believe, and I think we will end up sending a bill to the president’s desk two or three weeks after that,” Brown said during his visit to Piketon Monday. “It will be on the president’s desk, I’m hopeful, sometime in December, but if not then January. It will be a good bill and we’ll have a strong public option, is my prediction, and I’m optimistic this will have been done right.”

Republican Sen. George Voinovich’s office in Nelsonville had no comment on the pending legislation and referred calls to the senator’s press secretary Garrett Silverman, in Washington D.C. — who could not be reached Monday morning.

More information about House Bill 3962 can be found at the Library of Congress online, at thomas.loc.gov.

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 235, or e-mail pdtwriter@ryanscottottney.com.