The health care reform bill became law Tuesday, representing a significant legislative victory for President Barack Obama, who succeeded where previous presidents had failed in his attempt to bring change to the insurance industry.
“After a century of striving, after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise,” Obama said. “It is the law of the land.”
The bill will not take full effect before 2014. Some of its aspects, however, are set to be implemented this year.
In six months from Tuesday, young Americans up to the age of 26 could continue to obtain coverage through their parents’ health insurance under a provision included in the bill.
“This year, insurance companies will no longer be able to drop people’s coverage when they get sick, or place lifetime limits or restrictive annual limits on the amount of care they can receive. This year, all new insurance plans will be required to offer free preventive care. And this year, young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ policies until they’re 26 years old,” Obama said. “That all happens this year.”
The 26-year-old dependency policy is of particular interest to college graduates who lose student insurance at graduation and might not be insured until they find employment.
During the recession, many students have taken longer than expected to find a job, while others still remain unemployed.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been particularly supportive of this policy, showing up at numerous student rallies earlier this week and last week. In her remarks at the signing ceremony, she brought up the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s commitment to seeing health care reform passed during his lengthy career in the Senate.
“I don’t want to sign this bill without mentioning Senator Edward Kennedy, who up until his last days had an influence on this legislation in the most positive way. He said this is “the unfinished business of our society,'” Pelosi said. “He said having health care reform was about “the character of our country,’ not the provisions of any particular bill.”
An off-the-cuff profanity from Vice President Joe Biden after he introduced Obama at the signing ceremony managed to briefly draw the attention of the media away from the deatils of the historic event.
“That’s a big f—ing deal!” Biden said to Obama of the bill, apparently unaware that a microphone picked him up.
Republicans continued to speak out against the bill, with some promising to repeal it in Congress if the GOP were to make the necessary Congressional gains in the November mid-term elections.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin expressed her discontent through a Facebook note Monday, calling upon her followers to defeat Democrats who voted yes on the bill at the polls come November.
“We’re going to reclaim the power of the people from those who disregarded the will of the people,” Palin said. “We’re going to fire them and send them back to the private sector, which has been shrinking thanks to their destructive government-growing policies.”
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