This IS health care reform, people...

[cynatnite]

1. Creates a government-run plan, or "public option," to offer insurance coverage to compete with private sector insurance companies.

2. Sets up health insurance "exchanges," or marketplaces, where consumers can easily compare coverage and rates.

3. Requires nearly everyone to obtain health insurance coverage starting in 2013.

4. Ends blanket exemption for insurers from anti-trust laws.

5. Provides federal financial help for lower and middle income consumers so they can obtain coverage.

6. Bars insurers from denying or limiting coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

7. Bars insurers from imposing lifetime limits on coverage.

8. Expands Medicaid coverage to more people.

9. Imposes a 5.4 percent surcharge on adjusted gross incomes of more than $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for joint filers.

10. Imposes penalties on people and businesses who fail to comply with the new law.

Now, you may not like the details...some of which could be changed to get it through the Senate, but it doesn't change what it is...HEALTH CARE REFORM.

[aSpeckofDust]

1. what if the senate changes all those bullet points there? :O

[NYC_SKP]

2. K & R nt

[Go2Peace]

35. Nope, its some regulation and a social program. NOT REFORM

The base system full of greed and corruption is not changed much, and in fact gains as much as it loses.
We should pass the regulations and social program, but let's not fool ourselves and try to put lipstick on this pig.

[Aramchek]

3. indeed!

[Suich]

4. Thanks, cynatnite!

I feel a lot better about it now than I did a week ago!

[Muttocracy]

5. I'd rather move slowly in the correct direction than let things slide downhill waiting for perfect

[MindandSoul]

11. Exactly! Well said!

[MajorChode]

21. More like going to hell in a bucket than sliding downhill

Even preserving the status quo would have been something, and this bill does far more than that. What the naysayers refuse to acknowledge is that with nothing, the 44 million or so that are uninsured now will seem like paradise in a few years without someone sticking their finger in the dike.

[dflprincess]

6. Reform would have given access to care, not forced purchase of insurance

It would have left the states free to find their own solutions, not reassured the insurance companies that they have a captive customer base.

And, it would have gone into effect sooner. Delaying the current bill gives the insurance companies more time to jack their rates up and it means it will take longer for most people to figure just how badly they've been sold out.

[ecstatic]

9. Free access to care?

[dflprincess]

13. I would rather see a tax increase to cover care than contiune to

pay money to an insurance corporation.

If we set up a system similar to Canada or France, we'd be paying less in taxes than we do to those companies. Paying into a system that is free at point of service or has very low out of pockets would work much better than continuing to support a system that has out of pockets ("costsharing") that are so high many people will still not be able to afford care.

What we got tonight is not reform, it is reeinforcement of the status quo.

[ecstatic]

14. It will change my and my parents' life

Sorry that it won't change yours.

[cynatnite]

15. Well, it was never a realistic notion as much as I would prefer it...

I still view this as an important first step. It is reform, but the tweaking will come later down the road. Medicare has been continually adjusted over the years in order for it to work better for more people. Tonight they expanded medicaid coverage, too.

It was never meant to be the perfect reform from the start. Least, I never viewed it that way.

[dflprincess]

20. There is no way they're going to go beyond this for years

Both Congress and Obama will pretend they've solved the problem and will not permit any further serious discussion of the issue. If they had been any real interest in reform the states would have been given the option of trying to find real solutions to the health care mess. Instead that was stripped from the bill and the insurance companies protected.

This is not just the first step - it's the only step for a long, long time.

[cynatnite]

26. Well, I disagree because of the constant work always being done on Medicare. n/t

[dflprincess]

28. With some of the "reforms" not even going into effect until 2013

I doubt that they'll be listening to anyone wanting work done before then - unless it's their corporate masters.

Again, if really they had really been interested in reform and wanted to see how other solutions might work, the states would have been given the option to try something different rather than further embedding the broken system we have now.

[glinda]

7. Only comment I have is that it is NOT soon enough.

[glinda]

8. In fact, wasn't that the "Trigger" amount of time????

[mzmolly]

10. Yes indeed it is!

[mullard12ax7]

12. So how much are you going to pay now for your pre-existing condition?

It'll be more than you or I could ever afford.
Think you'll get reimbursed for costs if you're middle class? LOL.
I can compare prices now, they all suck.
Taxing the rich? That's a great idea.
Limit on lifetime coverage removed, fine; just charge a lot more for increased limits.

This bill sucks but go ahead and think you got something, neither you nor I will get anything but more corruption.

[tinrobot]

17. No higher premiums for pre-existing conditions.

No denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions. No higher premiums allowed for pre-existing conditions or gender. Limits on higher premiums based on age.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gm81T...

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Do you HAVE INSURANCE? IF you do

don't affect you... but the 37 million Americans who don't... will benefit

No it is far from perfect... care to check SS in 1935?

It is more than I expected, but less than I wanted... way the system works.

[Bonobo]

16. If Stupak Amendment language goes through, it is ALL for naught, I am afraid.

Can someone explain to me why it is okay? Am I missing something?

How is it NOT a dealbreaker?

Faustian bargains...

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. You bet it is. I favor single payer but this is a start

And it's a hell of a lot more reform than we had 2 hours ago.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Hmm does this mean we Billionaires lost?

And that I'll have to retire my tiara?

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Sell it

We'll do lunch. At the club.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Of course my darling, we will

tea and crumpets, and no more of them nasty and smelly tea baggers. You'd think they'd have some fine Earl Gray.

[liberalhistorian]

25. No, it's not, it's health INSURANCE reform. period.

We need health CARE reform. Health insurance is not health care, they are two entirely different things. Merely having health insurance does NOT guarantee coverage and does NOT preclude financial and credit ruin due to illness and the resulting avalanche of bills. It does nothing about insurers denying and/or delaying claims and will do little to prevent medical bankruptcies. We are going in the totally opposite direction from where we should be, which is to get the for-profit insurers, whose sole aim is to profit from illness and to maximize their profits by denying the very services they're supposed to be providing, OUT of things as much as possible. Mandated insurance is the absolute worst reform we could have and is NO "reform" at all. Period.

[enlightenment]

27. No offense, but where's the health CARE in that list?

I see:

insurance coverage
insurance coverage
insurance coverage
insurance companies
insurance coverage
insurance coverage
insurance coverage
Medicaid
a tax to help subsidize insurance coverage
penalties for those who fail to comply

Where is the health care reform in all that? Insurance coverage does NOT equal health care, nor does it even ensure access to health care.

Please don't call this health CARE reform. It's not.

[tavalon]

29. This is health insurance reform, not health care reform

That said, it is not the worst bill ever.

[DemBones DemBones]

30. But it's BAD health care reform.

What will happen to the people who can't afford to buy insurance? They won't be able to afford the fines, either, so what then? Debtors' prisons?

That's just ONE of the problems with this bill.

[Mari333]

31. this will be the worst PR ever if anyone is sent to jail for not buying into the mandate

can you imagine? people being sent to jail because they cannot afford mandated insurance and when they are taxed, not being able to pay it? man, thats going to kill the dems. You cannot throw people in prison because they wont suck the teat of the insurance companies.

[vi5]

32. When would the pre-existing/lifetime caps part start?

I'm dissapointed about a lot that is in or not in this bill.

But I have a 3 year old son who while we currently have private insurance, has been through the medical and medical insurance ringer. I worry about him getting, keeping, and not going over his insurance limit for the rest of his life.

And I've seen others just as impacted and devastated by those things that I feel they are just as important as a public option.

Also, out of curiosity when do those go into effect?

[OneBlueSky]

33. sorry. but this bill sucks . . .

it's a classic case of passing something -- anything -- to say that they passed health care reform, when all this does is make the insurance companies richer and a lot of people poorer . . . the "public option" is a joke, and requiring Americans to purchase insurance from private companies is (or should be) unconstitutional . . .

any relationship to health care reform in this bill is imaginary . . . it's insurance reform, and it benefits the insurance companies far more that the people . . . Kucinich and the others were right to vote against it . . .

[Roland99]

34. Explain to me how #2 is reform, please. Fining me or putting me in jail is a GOOD thing???

[spotbird]

36. The exchanges do not offer public insurance alternatives

They simply enable private insurance a forum to sell their unregulated policies.

It is disingenuous to call it a public option.