“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,” words spoken by President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House before he signed health reform bill into law Tuesday (March 23), about a day and a half after the House passed the Senate version of the legislation.
The action may seem swift, but the historic push for health reform dates back through generations to the first Roosevelt era.
Reforms in health coverage will go into effect incrementally over the next four years. The president said right away, tax credits will be offered to four million small businesses to help them cover the cost of insurance for their employees.
Health reform changes benefiting consumers this year include:
• insurance companies will no longer be able to drop people’s coverage when they get sick
• Insurance companies won’t be able to place lifetime limits or restrictive annual limits on the amount of care patients can receive
• All new insurance plans will be required to offer free preventive care,
• Young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ policies until they’re 26 years old
• Seniors who fall in the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole will start getting $250 to help pay for prescriptions
“And I want seniors to know, despite what some have said, these reforms will not cut your guaranteed benefits,” Obama said. “In fact, under this law, Americans on Medicare will receive free preventive care without co-payments or deductibles. That begins this year.”
Yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters some of those changes will go into effect in six months after the bill is signed into law.
When health reform is fully implemented, health insurance exchanges will be created as a competitive marketplace where uninsured people and small businesses to purchase affordable, quality insurance.
“They will be able to be part of a big pool and get the same good deal that members of Congress get,” Obama said. “And when this exchange is up and running, millions of people will get tax breaks to help them afford coverage, which represents the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history. That’s what this reform is about.”
The new health reform law is projected to lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government by reducing our deficit by over $1 trillion in the next two decades.
“It is paid for. It is fiscally responsible. And it will help lift a decades-long drag on our economy,” Obama added.
The president thanked former and current legislative leaders and the American people for making health reform possible, calling it “remarkable and improbable.”
“With all the punditry, all of the lobbying, all of the game-playing that passes for governing in Washington, it’s been easy at times to doubt our ability to do such a big thing, such a complicated thing; to wonder if there are limits to what we, as a people, can still achieve. It’s easy to succumb to the sense of cynicism about what’s possible in this country.
But today, we are affirming that essential truth -– a truth every generation is called to rediscover for itself –- that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations. We are not a nation that falls prey to doubt or mistrust. We don’t fall prey to fear. We are not a nation that does what’s easy. That’s not who we are. That’s not how we got here.
We are a nation that faces its challenges and accepts its responsibilities. We are a nation that does what is hard. What is necessary. What is right. Here, in this country, we shape our own destiny. That is what we do. That is who we are. That is what makes us the United States of America.”
For more information on this historic bill, visit http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-sen_health_care_bill.cfm