President Obama passes historic health care bill
Posted by The Skyliner on March 31st, 2010Kyra Alexander
Staff Writer
After nearly a year of debate, Congress approved what is potentially the most expensive legislation ever passed.
At this point, there is much that is not known by the general public about the details of this 2,700 page bill.
The vote was taken on Sunday evening, March 22, after last-minute pleas by both parties. The final vote was 220-211. There was bi-partisan resistance, with 34 democrats voting against the bill. No Republicans voted for the measure.
Although his State of the Union report in January stated jobs as his number one focus, President Obama has devoted much of his energies over the last couple of months to securing a successful vote for this health care reform prior to the Easter recess.
“Today, after almost a century of trying, today after over a year of debate, today after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America,” Obama said before putting his signature down.
House Republican leader, John Boehner of Ohio, stated that by signing the bill Obama “is abandoning our founding principle that government governs best when it governs closest to the people.”
The law will have “devastating consequences,” he said.
The new law, phased in over several years, extends coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans, imposes new taxes on the highest wage earners, calls for fees on healthcare companies, provides hundreds of billions in Medicare savings and costs almost one trillion dollars.
Although financial changes that affect private insurance companies, businesses and individual premiums will go into effect immediately, actual coverage of the new law is not expected to be fully effect until 2014.
A criticism against this congressional effort has been that of voting for such a massive plan without it being read and understood by those who passed it into law.
One of the more contested elements of the new law is the requirement that each American citizen own health insurance. Some see this measure, as the President stated at the signing ceremony, as “a victory for the United States of America.” But others see this requirement as oppressive and unconstitutional. The attorney generals of 13 states have already filed suits against the law on the basis of interference with state’s sovereignty and national constitutionality.
The 10-year bill will see 32 million Americans gain health care coverage and will ban insurance companies from denying coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions, among other measures.
A Bloomberg National Poll found that just four in 10 Americans favor the plan and a CBS news poll cites that 63 percent of the people are supportive of the Republicans’ drive to repeal the bill. These results, along with the vocal opposition expressed to many democratic representatives and senators during their summer town hall meetings, indicate a frustration among many who feel that they are not being fairly represented in Washington.
Lara Eller, a North Greenville University professor in the mass communication department, explains, “As free Americans I feel we should be able to choose to have health insurance or not. This law, in my opinion, is unconstitutional.”
Others such as Andrew Turner, junior theatre, feel that the government is taking a “socialist approach to health care reform because of the power that this new law gives the government, especially the IRS, who is in charge of collecting the fines.”
In a republic that is “by the people and for the people,” this health care law is taking hits from both sides of the political spectrum, but in the end the people will decide the country’s fate.
Tags: Spring 2010, Vol. 110 - Issue 9