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Obama Signs Health Care ReformPosted by Brad Bosserman on April
1st, 2010 No Comments Printer-Friendly
Sitting with the Vice President and his legislative allies last
Tuesday, President Obamasigned in to law the most significant
health care reform legislation of the past thirty
years. The national conversation about reform began during the
run-up to the 2008Presidential election. Over the last year plans
have been written, debated, analyzed,and re-written. The process
has been marked by months of over-heated rhetoric and
contentious political wrangling. But the final reform bill,
which cleared the Senate onChristmas Eve with 60 votes, was sent to
the Presidents desk after House Democrats
were able to bring 219 Representatives onboard.
The goals of the sweeping legislation are to allow for
near-universal insurance coverage,to curb long-term medical costs,
and to bring new regulation and transparency to the
private health insurance market. Many progressives argued that
the best way to achievethese goals was through single-payer
options, where the government would pay doctors
directly, but political realities required concessions that
rallied support behind moremoderate reforms. The provisions of the
law will be phased in over the next six years,
with the most dramatic components, new insurance exchange
markets, requiredcoverage, and robust low-income subsidies, to take
affect in 2014.
Many opponents of the new law cited its 900 billion dollar price
tag, spread over tenyears. Rep. John Boehner, the highest ranking
Republican in the House, objectedbefore the final vote saying, In
this time of recession, they wanted us to focus on jobs,
not more spending, not more government, certainly not more
taxes. Proponentsresponded by citing the analysis of the
Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan
accountants tasked with calculating the cost of all federal
legislation. The CBOconcluded that the reform will reduce the
deficit by $130 billion in the first ten years and
$1.2 trillion over the following ten years. This is achieved
through a combination oftaxes, savings, and cost control
mechanisms, such as increasing income taxes on
households making over $250,000 a year and taxing the most
expensive health careplans in an effort to combat medical
inflation.
So what does all of this mean for college students? One of the
provisions that takes
affect in six months will require all insurance companies to
allow young adults to remaincovered on their parents health
insurance until their 26th birthday. This will provide asafety net
for college graduates as they begin their careers and allow them to
take jobswithout worrying about whether they provide insurance
benefits. The law also saves $80
billion by ending a corporate subsidy to banks and instead
provides student loansdirectly to students and families. The
majority of these savings will be used to increase
the availability of Pell Grants.
