I have so-so feelings about the bill itself. I don't think it goes far enough in a number of areas (malpractice reform amongst them) and I'm unhappy about the promised executive order on federal funding of abortion. And I'm not going to count my eggs until the Senate actually passes the reconciliation bill.
That being said, I'm excited about the passage of this bill because it lays the foundation for further reform in a positive direction. This bill doesn't end the antitrust exemption of insurance companies but it does put an end to excision and denial of coverage due to specious "pre-existing conditions". It doesn't enact malpractice reform but does put together pilot projects for state-based experiments in malpractice reform. It doesn't establish an immediate national exchange for competitive pricing of health plans but it takes steps to encourage exchanges in the future. There are lots of and lots of things like that where I think we'll see a positive benefit now but more than anything else it will be a platform upon which to build and refine. The biggest thing is that it is a start. The history of social programs is that getting it started is the hardest part. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the National Parks system, the Clean Water and Air acts, Civil Rights laws...they all were virulently opposed at the beginning with gloom and doom scenarios that never came to pass. Instead, they were built upon and became ingrained in the fabric of our society and now form some of the most widely supported parts of our government. This Congress and President will have accomplished something that has been tried repeatedly over many many decades. That is truly impressive to me. And while I am not entirely thrilled about the entirety of the bill itself, I'm glad that we finally got a honest start. The status quo has been broken for a long long time and everyone knows it. Now something can hopefully start to change. Cheers, Judah On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 11:20 AM, Mary Jo Sminkey <[email protected]> wrote: > >>I'm cautiously optimistic about health insurance reform. There are some >>parts that I like and some that I don't like. I hear people talk about this >>like it's the end of the world though. To those I would simply say this: >>life will go on. > > Yup, exactly. It certainly is myopic to think that this one piece of > legislation will fix all the issues with health care, there are far too many, > and they are way too complex to fix that easily. As mentioned, controlling > costs is a big part of it, and this bill is unlikely to do enough in that > area. But you have to start *somewhere*. Incremental change is the only thing > that is likely to succeed. So this is what we've got to start with, and once > we see where it goes over the next couple years, the next step(s) can be > made. There have been many times in the past we've seen these "doom and > gloom" predictions in an attempt to keep the status quo, and it's just old > hat at this point. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:313655 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
