New health reform law will benefit Americans
desmoinesregister.com
The health reform law President Barack Obama signed on March 23 will transform America in important and positive ways. Indeed, it already has. Despite all the talk recently about how our nation has become divided and ungovernable, we have proved not only that we are governable, but also that we still have the capacity to act with boldness and vision.
One Nobel Prize-winning economist remarked that passage of the health reform bill is "a victory for America's soul." At long last, we will ensure every citizen has access to quality, affordable health insurance. The law also includes an array of provisions to strengthen the coverage of those who already have insurance.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirms the legislation fulfills Obama's pledge that health reform must be fully paid for and not add a dime to the deficit. In fact, the law will reduce the deficit by $143 billion in its first decade, and by a whopping $1.2 trillion in the second decade.
If you already have insurance and you're happy with it, you will be able to keep it. However, the new law will provide better insurance options. And CBO estimates that premiums will be lower for the vast majority of Americans, including small businesses and the self-employed.
The new law in coming months:
- Cracks down on abuses by health insurance companies - abuses that currently leave most Americans just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Among other things, it immediately creates a high risk pool program to help provide coverage to people who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions, and eventually will ban outright the practice of denying coverage due to pre-existing condition. It stops insurers from canceling the policies of people who get sick. It bans lifetime caps on benefit payments, and tightly limits annual caps. And it ends discrimination against women, who now pay premiums up to 48 percent higher than premiums for men.
- Makes health insurance affordable for the middle class and small businesses - the largest tax cut for health care in history - reducing premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
- Gives millions of Americans the same private insurance choice members of Congress will have, through a new competitive health insurance market that keeps costs down.
- Improves Medicare benefits with lower prescription drug costs, better chronic care, free preventive care, and nearly a decade more of solvency for Medicare. The prescription drug "donut hole" will be reduced and eventually eliminated.
In addition, the law includes a truly transformational element: a broad array of provisions promoting wellness, prevention and public health. The aim is to jump-start America's transition from our current sick care system into a genuine health care system, one that is focused on keeping us healthy and out of the hospital in the first place.
To this end, at the clinical level, the law requires reimbursement for proven, cost-effective preventive services such as cancer screenings, nutrition counseling and smoking-cessation programs. This means health professionals will be able to offer these services before you get diseases such as diabetes, cancer or emphysema.
For essential screenings and annual physicals, the law gets rid of the co-pays and deductibles that currently discourage many people from doing the right things to stay healthy.
As was the case with Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965, health reform was passed by Congress in the teeth of angry, often grossly misleading attacks - everything from "death panels" to "socialism."
But we can learn a hopeful lesson from the history of Social Security and Medicare. Both were born amidst bitter debate, but became hugely successful programs that won overwhelming bipartisan support. I predict the same success and eventual bipartisan support for the new health reform law, as it is phased in and becomes better understood. We are going to create a reformed insurance and health care system that works not just for the healthy and the wealthy, but for all Americans. |
