US Health Care Reform

After more than 40 years, the US has finally made changes to its health care system. Barack Obama signed his new health care plan into law today.

Yippeee!!!

The new plan will bring in all sorts of changes, but one of the most important is that more people in the US will get insurance. As well, insurance companies won't be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. This is fantastic.

There are people who oppose the reforms because they are going to cost money and because they think that by changing health care, the US is moving towards being a socialist state.

The reforms will cost money and it's entirely possible that some more taxes will go up. Most of the extra cost will come from the insurance companies, I expect. Heck, if the health care providers charged the insurance companies what they charge people who don't have insurance, the insurance companies would have the money for these changes.

The "US will turn into a socialist" argument doesn't make sense. The government isn't controlling health care or doctor's salaries... they're just saying that everyone has to be able to get health insurance. That's a far cry from what we have here in Canada, where just about everything is regulated.

I'm thrilled that the reforms have made it through. I know that there will be challenges to these reforms but I'm so happy that they've made it this far.