The health insurance reform legislation signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday 30 March 2010 was an historic event described as the first triumph of President Obama’s young presidency, a goal said to have eluded generations of democratic leaders in the United State of America.
The new law:
1. Bars insurance companies from discriminating based on pre‐existing conditions, health status, and gender.
2. Provides Americans with better coverage and the information they need to make informed decisions about their health insurance.
3. Creates health insurance exchanges – competitive marketplaces where individuals and small business can buy affordable health care coverage in a manner similar to that of big businesses today.
4. Offers premium tax credits and cost‐sharing assistance to low and middle income Americans, providing families and small businesses with the largest tax cut for health care in history.
5. Insures access to immediate relief for uninsured Americans with pre‐existing conditions on the brink of medical bankruptcy.
6. Creates a reinsurance program in support of employers who offer retirees age 55‐64 health coverage.
7. Invests substantially in Community Health Centers to expand access to health care in communities where it is needed most.
8. Empowers the Department of Health and Human Services and state insurance commissioners to conduct annual reviews of new plans demanding unjustified, egregious premium increases.
This historic legislation is meant to reduce deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years, with $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction in the following 10 years.
For more features of the Health Bill see: http://docs.house.gov/energycommerce/SUMMARY.pdf
The Republicans fear the law to be huge. Projections are that the 2,407 page law may lost $1trillion over the next decade to help over 30m additional Americans get health care coverage.
A USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted a day after the healthcare bill won support from the US House of Representatives, found that 49 per cent of Americans called its passage “a good thing”. Forty per cent disapproved.
A 23 year old American lady who was paying $411 a month for a private policy, a sum much more than her rent, is excited about the possibility of getting back on her parents' policy. Since, the age dependency in the health policy is up to 26 years of age.
While, a 51year old self-employed Oklahoma City man and his wife though can't afford insurance on an income that's usually below $30,000 a year, don't want the government's help. Thus did not welcome the reform. The man had rather take his chances and fend for himself. He believes, "If you can't provide for yourself, why should everyone else provide for you?"
I personally believe the law to be an awesome document, super dynamic, capable of adapting itself to future perceived changes in the economy.
Probably because United States of America is a capitalist country, a welfarist law as the Health Reform Bill was disapproved of, even by the class of people that it was meant to favour and reduce their cost of living.
I really pray for a period in my country when the average citizen is genuinely patriotic and when super dynamic laws that adequately cater for the future generation would be allowed to achieve desired results
