We made history last night.
After months of heated debate, cutthroat haggling and hardcore campaigning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive health care bill that will turn around the industry and make it easier and more affordable for millions of Americans to be insured.
Important things the bill will accomplish:
Those who are happily insured can keep their plans.
People with pre-existing conditions can’t be discriminated against, and companies can’t drop you for being sick.
People who can’t afford health care will get Medicaid or receive a subsidy to help them.
Young people will be allowed to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, up from the current limit of age 22.
Small business owners will receive tax credits to help them pay for premiums.
The gap in prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries will gradually narrow until it’s eliminated in 2020.
An “exchange” platform will be created to help people search for plans and promote competition between insurers.
Companies with more than 50 people will be required to offer insurance or be fined.
All of these things make the struggle and the bill’s flaws worth it. What many people — cough TeaPartiers cough — refuse to acKnowledge is that the system is rotting, and we need to clean it up.
The bill isn’t perfect. It’s not a magical cure for everything that’s wrong with America or even everything that’s wrong with the health care system. It won’t be cheap, and it won’t be easy. But that’s OK. The fact is people are dying for no other reason than they can’t afford to be treated, and any way you look at it, that’s wrong.
