America One, Teabaggers Zip!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Health care reform passed the Congress last night and President Obama will sign it into law tomorrow! The earth is still spinning on its axis, Rush Limbaugh is still spewing bigotry, John McCain is still a jackass, and thirty-two million more Americans are going to have access to affordable health care! It's not a perfect bill, Joe Lieberman and the Republicans saw to that, but it is a damned sight better than the mess we have been in for the past hundred years. It is a very good first step, and when the American people see what is actually in it for them, they will look at their Republican representatives and wonder just what all of raging hate was about.

Here are some facts regarding the new bill:

Health insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people because of pre-existing conditions.

Health insurance companies will no longer be able to drop coverage when people become sick.

Individuals and small businesses who can't afford to purchase insurance on their own will be able to pool together and choose from a variety of competing plans with lower premiums.

Seniors on Medicare will pay less for their prescription drugs because the law closes the "doughnut hole" in existing coverage.

Young people just out of school and without insurance will be able to stay on their parents' policies until age twenty-six.

Medicaid will be expanded to include 16 million more low-income people.

More money will go to community health centers offering more accessibility to health care for more people.

Over 2 million new jobs will be created in the health care sector as more people are able to afford health care services.

And, government estimates say that this bill will have the impact of reducing the federal deficit significantly.

Two groups have been at work on health care. One group has been trying to carefully craft a bill that will get the insurance companies off of our backs, and the other group has been focused on wrecking those efforts. One group said "Yes we can!" The other group screamed at town hall meetings, swaggered about with guns and signs, and called members of Congress such sad epithets as "nigger," "faggot," and "baby-killer," - and even spat on one Congressman.

And in the end, the adults won out.