Well, that certainly took us long enough didn't it??

[shadowkat]

Never thought this would happen in my lifetime. Course I didn't think we'd have a black president or the possibility of a woman president, let alone a woman secretary of State. Told a woman just last week that I'd be shocked if the health care bill ever got passed. Assumed the insurance lobby was too tough. But...what do I know? And thank ghod, I was wrong. In these instances, I'm very happy to be wrong.

In case you've been residing under a rock HR 4872 - the Senate Health Reform Bill passed by the Senate in December got passed by the House this Sunday and was signed into law. So yes, a National Health Care Reform Bill got passed in the US after...well over 100 years of trying. I kid you not. Theodore Roosevelt tried to get the thing passed.

Go here for a historical perspective on the efforts to get a National Health Care Bill passed that date back to well the 1800s. It has taken us not one but two centuries to get this bill passed, people. That's no small accomplishment. And while the War is largely over, there are still a few more skirmishes on the horizon - also it will take at least until 2014 or 2018 for some of the measures to take effect. What is interesting to me is Republicans have tried to get it through Congress - starting with Theodore Roosevelt and ending with Richard Nixon (of all people). Lyndon Johnson came the closest.

The stumbling block was getting it past Congress. The Founding Fathers made this harder than they ever would have imagined. No one could get the Senate and the House to agree. But the House did the unthinkable on Sunday - they passed the Senate Bill. All that remains to be voted on apparently are a few items that need to be reconciled...or rather amendments, and those do not require 60 votes. They can be passed with less. One of th amendments, in case you are at all curious - was deleting or throwing out the clause where the federal government paid Nebraska to cover their uninsured. Or something to that effect.

The compromise on abortion is NOT an amendment to the Bill but an EXECUTIVE ORDER signed by the President that would state federal funds are not to be used to pay for abortions. This does not mean you can't have them or that insurance companies can't pay for them, just that federal funds can't be used. And since it is an executive order - it can be overturned by a new administration.

If you want to read the bill for yourself go here: http://docs.house.gov/rules/hr4872/111_hr4872_amndsub.pdf

And here's CBS News description of what it entails:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000846-503544.html

The best parts about the bill - which take effect now and why I was a 100% for this??

1. FREE PREVENTIVE CARE UNDER MEDICARE-- Eliminates co-payments for preventive services and exempts preventive services from deductibles under the Medicare program. Effective beginning January 1, 2011.

2. HELP FOR EARLY RETIREES-- Creates a temporary re-insurance program (until the Exchanges are available) to help offset the costs of expensive health claims for employers that provide health benefits for retirees age 55-64. Effective 90 days after enactment

3. ENDS RESCISSIONS-- Bans health plans from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Effective 6 months after enactment.

4. NO DISCRIMINATON AGAINST CHILDREN WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS-- Prohibits health plans from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, this prohibition would apply to all persons.)

5. BANS LIFETIME LIMITS ON COVERAGE-- Prohibits health plans from placing lifetime caps on coverage. Effective 6 months after enactment.

6. BANS RESTRICTIVE ANNUAL LIMITS ON COVERAGE-- Tightly restricts new plans' use of annual limits to ensure access to needed care. These tight restrictions will be defined by HHS. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, the use of any annual limits would be prohibited for all plans.)

These are huge and necessary changes. What they prevent is a reoccurrence of what has happened to family members. My uncle and aunt, who had to sacrifice 401K's and jobs and go into debt in order to pay for her lymphomatic cancer. I FOUGHT for this in 1994. I gave up on it. Thought it was impossible. Worked for a health insurer and saw how they abused their power to deny people insurance in order to make a fast buck (they got their asses handed to them on the House Floor a month ago).

This bill is historic. It is a turning point in history.

Regarding the abortion bit? While I am "pro-choice" for a lot of reasons I won't bore you with and have studied abortion law in the US (know quite a bit about this topic as well) I'm not upset about it. I see the slippery slope on that one all too clearly...using federal funds for abortion rights could be problematic at this juncture. There are certain specific qualifiers that would have to be put into place to ensure that the government did not abuse the funds to force under-privileged or people to have abortions. Just as there would have to be certain specific qualifiers that did not permit the government to tell people who could and could not have one. As it stands now - the only restriction is you can't use federal funds. And it is a restriction enforced by an Executive Order NOT by an actual legislative law. Executive Orders are actually easier to overturn.

So YAY!!!! I'm doing it here, because I can't say YAY at work, too many conservatives in the mix. I'm sure there a few here, but, well, I rarely post on politics so you will just have to indulge me. I've been fighting for national health care longer than I've been online.

Extremely proud of my country and President today. I was completely right to vote for him, he's done exactly what I wanted him to do. And I don't give a rats ass what the detractors think about it.

Comments

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, I want Canada's plan even though politically I know it's impossible.

All things considered, though, I'm happy we got as much as we did. I've heard some real moaning coming from my fellow liberal/progressives because it doesn't have the public option (I personally think that's going to change within the next 10 years), and I've seen some real tantrums from the conservatives on my FList. The tantrums, I might add, seem to be routed in ignorance about what the law actually does. The problem is when you explain to them what it does, even though they themselves will benefit, they don't want to hear it.

*throws up hands*

If anyone was listening last night, everyone said — and I mean everyone — that this law was a start. It solves the most immediate problems and buys room to solve other problems down the road.

I live in MA, where a mini-version of this bill is already in full force. The one problem MA had was that it couldn't control certain costs, primarily because they were the kind of costs where you needed a bigger government (be it the feds or some kind of regional consortium of states working together) to exert pressure. I think this bill may solve a lot of MA's problems with cost-control in that regard.

It's interesting to note: that 3 years after MA started its own HCR, 9 in 10 people are reasonably happy with the plan. Only 1 in 10 want it repealed. That's a good sign for the federal plan, which has a few more cost controls for consumers than the MA law has.

I'm ashamed to admit that I actually didn't know about recission, pre-existing condition prejudice, and annual/lifetime limits on health insurance in other states. These things have been illegal in MA since the late 90s (dental insurance is excepted, but they can only do annual limits, not lifetime). Hell, in MA it's illegal to ask about pre-existing conditions and has been for almost a decade. I thought this was true of all states. Imagine my horror when my blissful ignorance on this point was pretty much blown away.

What I can tell you as someone who has lived under this system is that it's a good thing. It's unquestionably a good thing. Could it be better? Darn tootin' it could (remember what I said about wanting Canada's plan?). But at the same time, I'm positively thrilled the U.S. has finally caught up with my little ol' state on this and that everyone in the U.S. will have some protection starting immediately, with full protections by the time the phase-in is complete. I'm also thrilled that this will help control health insurance costs in my own state, because now the feds are in on the deal.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, I want Canada's plan even though politically I know it's impossible.

Sigh. So do I. Although I've grown weary of arguing with conservatives who fear it and think it would be akin to moving to Ethopia. I kid you not. Apparently they have whiny family members who live in Canada and are envious of their wealthy American cousins who have Cadillac plans or extensive plans that provide health care coverage that not all Americans have, actually I think it is less than 40% at the moment. Nor are these Americans losing those plans - which they don't seem to realize. You still get to keep your amazing plan. It does not change that people.
I had an extensive discussion with a conservative over the phone at work - which I shouldn't have been doing...lovely woman and in the insurance field no less - but believes for some reason or other...that the health care reform bill will limit her elderly mother's health coverage, when in reality it actually expands it and provides her mother with better coverage. Another case of judging a book by it's cover and not actually reading between the pages.

I'm ashamed to admit that I actually didn't know about recission, pre-existing condition prejudice, and annual/lifetime limits on health insurance in other states. These things have been illegal in MA since the late 90s (dental insurance is excepted, but they can only do annual limits, not lifetime). Hell, in MA it's illegal to ask about pre-existing conditions and has been for almost a decade. I thought this was true of all states. Imagine my horror when my blissful ignorance on this point was pretty much blown away.

Forget Canada, maybe I should just move to Boston. ;-)

NY while advanced in some respects, is behind the times on many issues.
I blame our legislature and governor, which is in a contest with Illinois, NJ, and Lousiana for most corrupt and worst run government.
Right now we are winning. NY State politics are embarrassing and amusing at the same time.

Kansas is a libertarian state with weird laws. They still have blue laws and alchohol prohibitions. And there are people who think left turn signals should be outlawed. They hate government involvement. They are proponents of home schooling and creationism NOT evolution in the classroom. We tried and failed miserably trying to get similar measures passed in Kansas in 1990s. The insurance lobby was part of the problem.
I wrote this paper on it and went to all the senate meetings. And tried to help my Senator get it passed.

And let's not talk about Florida, Texas, Michigan...et al.

What amuses me is the liberals are upset that we didn't get universal health care, while the conservatives are upset that we did. LOL!
Liberals are right, and I don't know what the conservatives are smoking, but they really need to check to see if it was mixed with some hallucinegenic.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

I am so unbelievably happy. I struggle with insurance so much, it's ridiculous how central it is to my life (seeing as insurance is supposed to give you peace of mind). It ain't perfect, but it's a foot in the door.

\o/

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Definitely a step in the right direction. I, like you, was pretty sure it wouldn't come together. I'm strangely okay with this rare sensation of being wrong. ;-}

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I think the President has already earned a place in the History books (and not just for his race)...
Rachel Maddow posted on Twitter:
"House under Pelosi has now passed stimulus, cap and trade, wall street reform, and health reform."
I think the first woman Speaker of the House is making a name for herself as well!

I'll admit that I really wanted the public option, but maybe we'll get another shot at that down the road....

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I knew the public option was impossible the moment it hit the Senate.
They couldn't get the Senate bill passed until they killed it. The first House Bill had it. The Senate unlike the House is more evenly split and thus harder to get a bill through. The fault of the American voters - I'm afraid.

(shrugs)

What I'm finding amusing is the conservatives for some bizarre reason think we got the public option - that now we have universal health care.
We don't. This is middle ground. They had to compromise to get it through.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Oh I wasn't surprised that we got no public option... everyone seems to be in the pocket of the insurance companies. But the end result means that although this bill will help people already insured, it isn't really going to help anyone who cannot afford insurance. There is no reason for the cost of insurance to go down, and mandating insurance doesn't really make it more affordable.

But they did what they could for now, I guess.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

That's not entirely true. It does actually help - it expands medicare and provides businesses that currently aren't providing health insurance for their employees with incentives to do so.
It also provides people who are not insured with options - and an incentive to buy insurance, along with tax breaks for those below certain income level.

I could argue this better if my brain didn't hurt. But work killed it this week. There's nothing left.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I hear the arguments... but I won't believe them until I actually (my own self) can find insurance for under $500/month... because right now I am one of the uninsured (I have been since I left California). Health insurance costs more than food and rent in Iowa (for those over 60 years old). Right now I'm just gambling that I can stay healthy until I qualify for medicare....

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Well, the problem is most of these measures aren't going into effect immediately.

The problem also is - that you have to apply for it under your home state. Medicaid is being expanded but it is something that must be given by the states and the states are protesting. You may want to look into health care programs under "medicaid" not "medicare" in Iowa. My paternal Grandmother in her 50s and 60s was on Medicaid and Medicaid provided her hospital care and assisted care living. Also try for Catastrophic health insurance - I could get it in Kansas for less than $300 a month. (I was forced to pay for Cobra - at 495 a month for about a year. So I hear your pain. And I was without it entirely for a couple of years...because I could not afford it. NY doesn't have catastrophic - which is a problem.)

The bill will make you get insurance, once it goes into effect, pushing providers to provide lower cost programs. (But here's the
thing - it takes about two years for most bills to go into effect, people fight them. And this one - a lot of people are fighting, particularly the States - because the States have to expand their medicaid coverage to include more income levels and have to provide health care option for people who cannot afford insurance.
Insurance companies also have to create cheaper options for people who cannot afford insurance or are unemployed and unable to get it through their business. Plus there are now fines for those who refuse to get it and can.)

So while I think we won the war, like all wars...there's so much more fighting to come.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, it is catastrophic I was talking about (a $5-6,000 deductible, which means I pay $500/month for insurance I will never use).... According to the law I am not required to buy health insurance until 2014, and hopefully some options will be available by then. We shall see. I was able to find $300/month when I was your age too, but it went up radically every year after I hit 50 and now that I'm 60 it is unbelievably expense and offers no real coverage... unless I'm actually dying (so that I'd meet that huge deductible).

But as you say, this bill was a good first step, and I'm grateful they managed to pass something!

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I think one of the bits in the bill - which they are fighting over - is reducing the price of catastrophic for people over a certain age and providing health care coverage at a cheaper rate for those in the pre-retirement category?

The costs have gone up. I chose to go without for about a year, because I could not afford $600 a year or thereabouts, with high deductibles.

I know they are removing the co-payment option for Medicare. And are expanding Medicaid to include preventive care, prior to the bill, Medicaid really only covered hospital coverage.

There are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out though. And I don't envy the people who have to work them out. Having dealt with government regulations and procedures, worse the interpretation of them at work - it is a nightmare. That's been my last two months, procedural hell. New laws being passed and having to comply, but not sure when you have to comply and when you have to amend the contract or how. And yes, more red tape for everyone concerned.

I remember Wellpoint (Empire Blue Cross Blue Sheild) used to brag about the health care plan for the uninsured - called total blue or something like that. But it confused the hell out of me and that was when I was working there.

[annegables.livejournal.com]

As a Canadian - I can assure you that we have all been shaking our heads and wondering what the heck is in the water in the US. I mean, hello, it may not be perfect but we have been running a health care plan in this country for a long time and no one seems to have turned our country anything other than democratic. Having lived in the US as a teenager I understand that a lack of education hampers people in their reactions. But, still, yay for America!

And do not get me started on the crazy Republicans and Tea Party people. They go on and on about Obama and how this will take away choice, blah, blah, blah. Right, and your spitting, shouting, name calling and insulting is giving people choices?? Sigh....

[alocalmaximum.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

As another Canadian I agree completely with this comment. (Though I never lived in the U.S.)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It's difficult to explain the American Political System to people outside of the US. I have troubles understanding it myself at times and I have a law degree and worked in a state legislature.

I remember trying in the 1980s when I was in England. They just did not understand. How was it possible to have a Democrat as President and a Congress that was Republican? Or the court system - which could overturn a law passed by the legislature based on constitutionality? Plus the whole thing about the States being able to appeal in the courts, or
protesting it or deciding not to follow it.

Arizona still refuses to comply with Daylight Savings Time. And Alaska has considered leaving the US on many an occassion, as has Rhode Island.
Don't get me started on Kansas. ;-)

It's actually no different than fandom. Imagine the US as the Buffy fandom. You have your shippers, you have your non-shippers, you have the casual viewers, and you have the folks who are fed up and think the story went off the rocks after S3. Same deal here. They don't agree on the semantics, they don't agree on the definition of what universal health care is, they don't agree on who should pay for it, they don't agree on how it should be paid for...it's endless. Arguing about health care with some folks is a bit like a Spuffy shipper trying to convince a Bangle shipper that B/A is over or vice versa! ;-)

I know quite a few people who hate the national health care reform bill and are highly educated. It really has little to do with education so much as to do with perception and personal experience. Our own personal experience can often blind us to what is real. And I think that is the case here. The conservatives who are against health care reform just believe that more government involvement will create more red tape and more bureaucracy.

Not all conservatives are against it, by the way. It just looks like they are. The bill in of itself is actually fairly moderate in scope.

[anomster.livejournal.com]

YAY! from me too. US healthcare has finally joined the 20th century (well, mostly). As a freelancer who gets health insurance through a professional organization, I'm very glad to see this. Sure, I'd rather have had a public option--hell, I'd rather have had universal health care--but this will be a big improvement. Coverage through the organization has been very patchy--limited to major cities and the areas around them, and not even all of those. I'm hoping the new law will change that, although as a confirmed skeptic, I'm gonna wait and see.

The main thing that surprises and bothers me (the abortion restrictions bother but don't surprise me) is that protection for adults with preexisting conditions doesn't go into effect for another 4 years. With all the people who've gone bankrupt or even died because their insurance companies refused to cover their preexisting conditions, I didn't think they'd let the companies get away with that so much longer.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yes, unfortunately they had to make a lot of compromises to get this thing through. It was a lot of negotiating. And the two sides are still not happy. The only people who are happy are the moderates - ones in the middle, who weren't really expecting that much and just wanted some reform.

The liberals think we failed because we didn't get universal health care and the conservatives think we failed because we did get universal health care.

It's headache inducing. ;-)