BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The controversial healthcare reform bill that passed the House is headed to the Senate, but a final bill may not come about until sometime next year.

Much was made of Saturday's late night vote in the House of Representatives, both of Kern County's Congressmen say there is still a lot of work to be done and one of them could change his vote, if certain things are left out of that final bill.

It narrowly passed the house 220 to 215, needing 218 to move on the senate where it will be an ever narrower vote, although when remains a question.

Fresh from Washington D.C., Representatives McCarthy and Costa, who voted against and for the bill respectively, see the work as anywhere but finished.

"It's a long way to go, I think when you saw how close the vote was in the House you could see how this bill was not the one the public wants," McCarthy said Tuesday.

"We have made significant progress, it is a work in progress," said Costa. "And of course we're still probably about six weeks to two months away from a final bill coming back (to the House).

McCarthy's dislike of the Democratically backed bill was well known before Saturday night's vote, but Costa had not indicated up until then which way he would vote.

An element that got his support, potential funding for a medical school at UC Merced, which if removed could change Costa's vote.

That and the so-called Stupak Amendment, which limits federal funding for abortions, that bought about 40 Democrats' votes.

"It's always been a very difficult issue for me and while I support a women's choice, at the same time money that comes from taxpayers dollars where you have people who do not--who feel very strongly about their religious bill and conviction, I respect that," Costa said when asked whether he would still support the bill if that provision were removed.

During McCarthy's town hall last summer residents were outraged at early form of the bill, as for this new one McCarthy doesn't believe it will become law.

"I'm not guaranteeing that this bill becomes law, I think there's so much more as people begin to read it and understand it," McCarthy said.

McCarthy says Republicans will continue to fight the bill, which some in the senate have already called dead on arrival.

Costa says the choice of doing nothing is not an option, but that he reserves the right to vote against the final version if he so chooses.