The world turned upside-down, and help is on the way!
By Noble Johns
Chattanooga (BNW) — The world turned upside-down, and help is on the way! “The world turned upside-down,” is the song that was played when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, and as a result, help was on the way to the thirteen colonies.
The world turned upside-side is what has happened in America with health care reform, and help is on the way for 35 million uninsured Americans. Now, they can go to the doctor!
If you have a lump in your breast and you don’t know a doctor, help is on the way! If you keep coughing up blood and you’ve been doing it for years, help is on the way! If you are on the verge of losing everything because of high medical bills, help is on the way!
If you are an uninsured adult with pre-existing medical conditions and are unable to obtain health coverage — help is on the way — and within ninety days!
Once Barack Obama signed into law the landmark healthcare reform measure, he assured his great legacy as president, and his great deed is equal to Lincoln’s ‘Emancipation Proclamation.’
"We have now just enshrined ... the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their healthcare," Obama said in the East Room of the White House, with Democratic members of Congress and others cheering heartily.
However, 13 of the 50 U.S. states went to federal court and filed a lawsuit challenging the measure just minutes after Obama signed it into law. The states assert that the new law violates state's rights provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
The states argue that Congress lacks authority under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce to require people to buy health insurance, as the new law does. The White House has said it does not expect the suit to be successful.
The law extends insurance coverage to 32 million Americans, expands the government health plan for the poor, imposes new taxes on the wealthy and bars insurance company practices like refusing cover to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
Most of the state officials who filed the suit challenging the law were Republicans. The new law is designed to revamp the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry.
Republican Party fought bitterly, yet, failed to stop Obama's Democrats in Congress from passage of the bill on Sunday. They are praying that public skepticism over the measure will help them regain control of Congress in November's mid-term elections.
Republicans in the Senate have vowed to fight those changes, but Democratic leaders say they are confident they have the votes to push the bill through. The Senate is taking up a package of changes that the House of Representatives also passed on Sunday to improve the $940 billion overhaul program.
Big insures' stocks appear to be tanking. While investors continued to digest the legislation, the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index of insurers was down about 1 percent, compared with a roughly flat broader market. Shares of Coventry Health Care were down 1.7 percent and Humana was off 1.1 percent.
After signing the bill, Obama was to attend another ceremony as he launched a publicity blitz that he and his fellow Democrats hope will overcome widespread public doubts and confusion about the plan.
With rival Republicans unanimously opposed to his healthcare plan, Obama put his reputation on the line and poured his energy into passing the bill, even delaying a planned trip to Indonesia and Australia.
Aides have described a euphoric atmosphere at the White House after the House on Sunday narrowly approved the bill, which analysts had pronounced all but dead only a few weeks earlier.
Obama used twenty pens to sign the bill. The pens will be given as souvenirs to legislators who were instrumental in pushing it through.
"Today, after almost a century of trying — today, after over a year of debate — today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the Untied States of America. Today," Obama said.
Republicans have also vowed to try to repeal the law.
"The reality of it is that no one paid attention to the American people for the past year. And the American people have been to the point of outrage on this issue," Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said on NBC's "Today Show."
Obama's intense focus on the issue drew criticism from some Democrats who worried healthcare was becoming a distraction from the need to fix the economy and boost jobs.
Passage the bill now will free Obama to devote time to other priorities, including pushing for congressional approval of a plan to reform and tighten financial regulations.