Health Care Reform Passes... Now What?

Well, they've gone and done it. The health care reform package has been passed and will be made into law. Barack Obama has succeeded where Bill and Hillary Clinton failed. And all the obstruction and opposition raised by Republicans is nothing more than a fart in the wind. It's nice to know that after one whole year, congress is finally capable of doing one, damned thing.

Yippee.

So what have we got? Frankly, I don't think the experts fully know, and so I'm a little leery of trusting what they have to say. I'm more inclined to wait and see how it works. Let's take this for a test drive before we pass judgment. Frankly, no one can blame me for saying this, can they? I mean, we all remember "No Child Left Behind," right? Turned out to be more like, "No Child Left Untested." How about campaign finance reform. Remember that? The McCain-Feingold bill? That one didn't reform jack shit! Remember Bill Clinton's "Crime Bill?" Yeah, that one really worked. So who knows?

But I can tell you two things for sure: First, we're going to see that lots of shit that was said about what this bill will do is dead wrong. Particularily the report Fox news put out about how the JAMA had a poll which said that 47% of practicing primary care physicians would quit or desire to quit if health care reform passes. There was no JAMA article which said any such thing, and there will be no sudden surge of quitting or retiring primary care doctors. But the opposite also holds true: There WILL be unintended consequences of this bill. Something nobody could have seen coming will come about as this new law goes into practice, and we'll have to repair it when it surfaces. Look out, everybody!

I've predicted we'll need to do all this again. I just don't see it any other way. But for now, we may have bought ourselves a little breathing space. I hope we don't waste that breath being blowhards.

Eric