WASHINGTON (AP) — Few issues strike home as much as health care — the availability of quality medical treatment and its cost.

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For Valley families, it is a matter of affording health insurance. For Valley medical professionals it is a matter of providing care for all when many can’t pay or the federal government is slow in paying. For medical facilities such as Halifax Regional Medical Center, it is a question of what will the impact of the final legislation be and when will it help.

On Capitol Hill in Washington, after a series of delays and some rancorous disputes over President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority, final House committee action on a health overhaul bill is sure to be hailed as a big step forward.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, the final of three House committees to act, was expected to complete work today on sweeping legislation seeking to hold down costs and provide health care to nearly all the 50 million uninsured.

Will Mahone, the chief executive officer of Halifax Regional Medical Center, is carefully tracking what is happening in Congress. “We have a sense they are pulling together a bill but fear they may be going too quickly and there will still be gaps,” he told the Daily Herald.

“As with all legislation, the devil is in the details,” Mahone said noting the final impact will depend on how the new program is implemented.

For many, one concern is many facets of various health care proposals don’t take effect until one or two years down the road.

Today’s vote in the House comes on the final day in session before lawmakers leave Washington for their annual month-long summer recess. With committee action completed majority Democrats will be able to return to their districts claiming momentum on health care — even though up until recently the goal was to have legislation all the way through the House by the recess.

“The American people will have a chance to see what’s in it for them, and our members will have a chance to discuss this with their constituents,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “And when they come back in September, we’ll take up the legislation.”

The progress in the House was not matched in the Senate, where bipartisan negotiators announced they needed additional time to produce any agreement for their committee to review.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman on the Finance Committee, said it would be September before the panel could act, a setback for Democratic leaders who hoped to wrap up all committee work before recess with final action in the Senate Finance Committee as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“The president, Leader (Harry) Reid and I share the goal of a bipartisan bill and we will continue to work toward meaningful, bipartisan legislation that can pass the Senate and become law this year,” Baucus said in a statement Thursday after a day of uncertainty in which months of negotiations briefly appeared to veer off-course.

In the House, action in the Energy and Commerce Committee had been stalled for over a week as Waxman sought to quell objections from a group of seven fiscally conservative Democrats who hold enough votes on his panel to block action. Waxman succeeded Wednesday in getting a deal with four of the seven — more than enough to allow him to move legislation forward — but only by making concessions that incurred the wrath of House liberals.

The liberals are angry that subsidies to help low-income people buy care would be shrunk under the deal. They also say they can’t support a proposed new structure for a government-run insurance option, which would allow payment rates to providers to be negotiated rather than based on Medicare rates as originally envisioned. The result could be costlier care.

Liberals on the Energy and Commerce Committee were looking at proposing new cost savings or revenue increases in place of the subsidy cuts in committee action Friday. Waxman will have to work to lock down their support while keeping the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats on board, but he was expected to prevail.

There was late-night drama in Waxman’s committee Thursday as an anti-abortion amendment passed when conservative Democrats joined Republicans to support it — then failed less than two hours later when Waxman used a procedural maneuver to bring it up for a second vote.

In the intervening time one conservative Democrat — Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee — changed his vote from “yes” to “no.” And a second conservative Democrat who hadn’t voted the first time — Rep. Zack Space of Ohio — voted “no.” It was enough to take the amendment down on a vote of 29 to 30.

The measure would have specified that health care legislation moving through Congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion, except in limited cases.

The committee approved a Democratic-written measure specifying that abortions would not be required as part of government-approved insurance benefit packages. The measure, which passed 30-28, says health plans in a new purchasing exchange aren’t required to cover abortion but that each region of the country should have at least one plan that does so.

The amendment also limits the use of federal funding for abortions. Democrats cast the measure as a compromise but Republicans mostly opposed it.

What do Valley residents think?

These questions were asked Thursday by Daily Herald Staff Writer Della Batts.

The Congress is looking at three options in health care reform. They are:

A) Leave it the way it is.

B) Set up a non-profit, private health insurance to cover most people

C) A government-mandated program run by the government.

1) Which of these, if any, would you support?

2) What do you think is the biggest challenge facing health care reform.

Cast your own vote in the Court of Public Opinion by going to www.rrdailyherald.com and speaking your mind.

Mickey Vincent, Roanoke Rapids:

“It would be nice if it was a perfect world. I don’t know how to rectify the problem but I appreciate the luxury of providing my own health care.”

“Part of the problem is the hospitals and doctors offices charging over inflated prices for services. They need to make affordable health care prices and be transparent with the cost of services.”

Robin Turner, Halifax:

“I support a government run agency. With the health insurance I’ve got, every time I get a raise the health care swallows it up and the benefits drop.”

“No matter what they do they’ve got a lot of people not willing to be covered. I don’t know how they’re going to work it all together.”

Dana Barnes, Roanoke Rapids:

“I’d support a non profit private health insurance. I just don’t want the government in control of it.”

“The biggest problem is the government coming in and mandating how health care is provided.”

Mamie Burns, Roanoke Rapids:

“I think they should keep it like it is now. I don’t like anything involving our having to go to doctors they say we have to go to.”

“They need to regulate the insurance companies and what they charge instead of trying to regulate us.”

Maryland Rook, Roanoke Rapids:

“I really don’t know what they should do.”

“The biggest problem is the cost.”

Frances Brabble, Roanoke Rapids:

“I think it should stay like it is now.”

“Fraud is probably the biggest problem.”

Robert Burn,  Roanoke Rapids:

“I think it should be run by a private company.”

“Government involvement is the biggest problem and they need to put safeguards in place.”

Robert Love, Roanoke Rapids:

“They should leave it like it is.”

“Mostly the cost is the problem.”

Arthur Harris, Roanoke Rapids:

“I think it should stay like it is.”

“The biggest problem is the costs are too high.”

Sally McClintock, Roanoke Rapids:

“I don’t care which one they use as long as there’s no more money coming out of my pocket.”

“It’s really hard for the lower and middle class, where people who already have health care may not want something else.”