The US is the world’s richest nation, but the only industrialized democracy that does not provide healthcare coverage to all of its citizens, about 36 million of whom are uninsured.
Several US presidents since Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s have sought to overcome the traditional US suspicion of a wider government role in healthcare.
Washington spends more than double what the UK, France and Germany do per person on healthcare, but lags behind other countries in life expectancy and infant mortality, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has said.
Republican Senator George Voinovich of Ohio did not vote.
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