Sunday will go down in history as the day when the final vote to pass health care reform took place.
On that day, the House of Representatives voted 219-212 to pass the measure. President Barack Obama signed this measure, which is known as the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act of 2010, and signed it into law just a few days later on Tuesday.
By the time the school year starts, every child in America will be able to have some sort of health coverage. For many of us college students, you will now be able to stay on your parents health insurance until you reach the age of 26 years old.
If you are on Medicare, you will receive a $250 rebate check to help cover your medical expenses, and when you go to see a doctor, you will not be charged a co-pay. That means that you can get preventative care that will help protect from more dangerous diseases such as stroke and diabetes.
This is what presidents, all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt have been fighting for: the ability for Americans to have reliable and affordable health care so that they can live a healthy lifestyle and a longer life.
We still hear the many opponents of this new law claim it will kill the economy and push the federal government into massive deficits.
Unfortunately, fact is not on their sides. One of the things killing the economy is so many Americans right now are sick and cannot go see a doctor. We are all paying for someone else to go to the emergency room to receive the kind of care that a personal physician is supposed to provide.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported the healthcare reform package signed into law Tuesday is not only paid for but will also reduce the deficit over the next two decades.
Since Medicare and Medicaid made up two of the biggest pieces of the federal budget before, this will help to alleviate our budget situation until it’s under control and then start the process of eliminating the deficit.
More people are going to be covered. This is going to help save Americans money
and more Americans will become healthy because they can now see their physician.
We now join the ranks of other industrialized countries set up to provide health care for all citizens. Our solution is an American solution.
We cannot do what other countries have done, primarily because health care makes up a significant part of our economy. What we have done is tell the insurance companies that they can no longer drop patients from their plans if they get sick and refuse to provide coverage to people who have pre-existing conditions.
During the campaign in 2008, President Obama promised that he would pass healthcare reform before the end of his first term. He has done so and has accomplished what so many presidents have failed to do.
It would have been nice for the GOP to support this good law. Unfortunately partisan politics got in the way.
Every Republican in the U.S. House voted against the bill.
The GOP continues to be the party of no. No to healthcare reform, no to
financial regulation reform, no to investing in college students, no to investing in human capital and no to doing what’s right for all Americans.
The GOP has some decisions to make.
They can choose to continue to say no or they can choose to sit down at the table of negotiation and work out the differences of opinion so that the best solutions can be found for America’s many problems.
While there still may be some who are firmly against health-care reform, I say this — think about what you would do if you didn’t have health insurance, and you will know what 30 million Americans are going through everyday.
