Health care coverage for all by 2014

Health care reform is one signature away from becoming law, thanks to lawmakers in the other Washington who were willing to take part in a marathon Legislative session on Sunday. The House approved the Senate-approved health care bill by a 219 – 212 vote. And revisions to it, called the reconciliation bill, by a 220 – 211 margin.

Disappointedly, it had a 100 percent partisan outcome.

If Congress members were Democrat, they voted for it, some only after language was clarified that there would be no government-funded

abortions. If a Congress member was Republican, they just plain voted no. The bill passed without the support of one Republican vote. Reforming the broken health care system in this country proved to be a polarizing issue and it isn’t over yet.

Meanwhile, millions of uninsured Americans and students, who will be able to stay on their parent’s insurance policy until age 26, can soon breathe a sigh of relief that if they get hurt or ill, they won’t lose their home or face bankruptcy following a catastrophic event.

Though most won’t feel the changes for a while, the bill is expected to be signed into law by President Obama early this week. It will occur prior to the Senate’s vote on the House-approved portion of the health care bill and revisions. An up or down vote is expected before week’s end.

It is an ambitious effort to not only cap our nation’s $2.5 trillion health-care system and curb the tendency to use the emergency room for health care, but to pick up every American by the boot straps — every uninsured man, woman and child.

If all goes as expected, the bill will set into motion changes in the health insurance market that will be equal to the expansion of coverage in 1965 when Medicare and Medicaid were created.

It’s about time.

– Kelly Ruhoff

Editor