Listening, reading and pondering the Health Care Reform law
Posted By RichC on March 25, 2010
I’ve been spending a bit of time on the road this week (who parks like this? – image right) which finds me listening to the non-stop news and talk radio programs discussing health care reform; the Senate bill was passed by the House and signed by President Obama earlier this week.
Even after a year of creating this bill and watching the final passage, too many questions are still left unanswered:
“What will this bill end up costing us and how will it impact Americans?”
Progressive Democrats and their spin masters would have me believe that the new law provides long overdue “rights” for people in this country, but insist that there is still much to be done to improve the bill. Some on the extreme left believe that the new law still discriminated against those living (and working) in this country who “aren’t yet legal citizens” and that they need to be included in the new legislation. 
They also point out that federally subsidized health care still needs to include abortion coverage just as existing policies just as employer provided insurance do. Most Democrats (excluding some moderates) also doubt that an insurance exchange is as good as a government run non-profit plan – something liberals believe is better.
Conservatives are strongly opposed, to the newly passed bill and the methodical expansion of government. Attorneys Generals in many states are busy filing lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to purchase an insurance product or be penalized. Besides being philosophically opposed to more bureaucracy and loss of Americans liberties and freedoms, they point to the new legislation adding 16,500 new IRS agents charged with making sure all Americans (by 2014) are covered by an acceptable insurance plan as bigger government. While health care will now be controlled from Washington, it’s not the only thing bureaucrats will now control because of HCR bills passage – banking for student loans will not be handled directly from Washington. Sorry local banks … no more handling student loans. One of my personal concerns is that there really isn’t much cost control associated with the new reform, just mandates and oversight coming from a centralized government. When implemented, I don’t see most of us experiencing lower cost or better care, just more debt and an entitlement expense that will be handed down to the next generation.
(image above: a short list of changes pulled from the WSJ this morning)
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