The end of the beginning.
Those of you on my flist who are not American may not know that this morning our President signed into law something called HR 3590, now Public Law 111-148. This passed the Senate by a 60-39 vote on Christmas Eve and the House of Representatives by a 219-212 vote late in the evening on this last Sunday.
What Public Law 111-148 is is health care reform. It creates a regulated insurance exchange much like those that exist in Japan, Australia, and Germany--not a public programme like in Britain, France, or Canada, but also not the completely unregulated mess that we had before.
It's a horribly flawed and half-arsed law that doesn't bring us anywhere near a halfway-decent safety net. Me comparing it to the Japanese, Australian, and German systems is me being extremely generous. But! Currently forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance; this is projected to give it to thirty-two million of them over the next nine years. Currently insurance cartels can deny coverage based on 'pre-existing conditions', a self-defined term that includes, among other things, having Down's Syndrome or ever having been pregnant. Within a couple of years, no more. Currently insurance cartels can simply cut off insurance coverage if you take ill. Soon, no more.
Theodore Roosevelt tried to do this in 1912. Harry Truman tried in 1949. Lyndon Johnson tried in 1965 (and at least came out of it with Medicare). Richard Nixon tried in 1970. Bill Clinton tried in 1993. Now, in 2010, it finally started. And like Social Security and Medicare, it'll almost certainly--had damn well better--develop and evolve from here.
What Public Law 111-148 is is health care reform. It creates a regulated insurance exchange much like those that exist in Japan, Australia, and Germany--not a public programme like in Britain, France, or Canada, but also not the completely unregulated mess that we had before.
It's a horribly flawed and half-arsed law that doesn't bring us anywhere near a halfway-decent safety net. Me comparing it to the Japanese, Australian, and German systems is me being extremely generous. But! Currently forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance; this is projected to give it to thirty-two million of them over the next nine years. Currently insurance cartels can deny coverage based on 'pre-existing conditions', a self-defined term that includes, among other things, having Down's Syndrome or ever having been pregnant. Within a couple of years, no more. Currently insurance cartels can simply cut off insurance coverage if you take ill. Soon, no more.
Theodore Roosevelt tried to do this in 1912. Harry Truman tried in 1949. Lyndon Johnson tried in 1965 (and at least came out of it with Medicare). Richard Nixon tried in 1970. Bill Clinton tried in 1993. Now, in 2010, it finally started. And like Social Security and Medicare, it'll almost certainly--had damn well better--develop and evolve from here.