[News] Obama signs historic healthcare reform into law

[AdminOnline]

(Reuters) - A jubilant President Barack Obama signed the most sweeping U.S. social policy legislation in decades into law on Tuesday, putting his name on a healthcare bill that will help shape his legacy and the Democrats' chances of holding on to power in Congress.

"We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their healthcare," Obama said in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, with Democratic members of Congress and other supporters cheering.

Fourteen states quickly filed suit in federal court to challenge the law, arguing that it undercuts states' rights, and congressional Republicans, who had unanimously opposed the bill, vowed to keep fighting it.

Designed to revamp the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry, the law will extend health insurance to 32 million Americans who currently have none. It will bar practices like insurers' refusing coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, expand the Medicaid government health insurance program for the poor, and impose new taxes on the wealthy.

The law will require people to obtain health coverage, impose fines on those who don't and provide federal subsidies to help low and middle-income families afford the insurance.

After failing to prevent Democrats in Congress from passing the bill on Sunday, Republicans hope public skepticism over the measure will help them regain control of Congress in November's elections.

The Senate began debating a package of changes aimed at improving the $940 billion overhaul. Republicans vowed to fight those changes, but Democratic leaders say they are confident they have the votes to pass the package.

Democrats are using special budget rules that allow a simple 51 vote majority to pass the package instead of the 60 usually needed in the 100-member Senate to approve controversial bills. Republicans have vowed a flurry of amendments to alter the package and force it back to the House of Representatives for another vote.

State attorneys general -- all but one of them Republicans -- filed two separate suits challenging the law on the grounds that it violates states' rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Thirteen sued in Florida minutes after Obama signed the bill. Virginia brought its own case.

The Justice Department will "vigorously defend" the new healthcare law and is "confident that this statute is constitutional," spokesman Charles Miller said in a statement.

Critics said Congress lacks authority to require people to purchase health insurance.

"It forces people to do something -- in the sense of buying a health care policy or paying a penalty, a tax or a fine -- that simply the Constitution does not allow Congress to do," said Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican who is running for governor.

Obama plans another signing ceremony on Wednesday, this time of an executive order that reaffirms the new healthcare reform act's "consistency" with long-standing restrictions on paying for abortions with federal funds.

Obama agreed to the order in return for winning the support of anti-abortion Democrats for the healthcare bill.

ELECTION ISSUE

Republicans vowed to make the new law a major campaign issue in the upcoming congressional elections.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Republican campaign slogan for November would be "repeal and replace," acknowledging that many feel that at least some change is needed to the current costly healthcare system.

Meanwhile, the liberal Health Care for America Now advocacy group joined the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to launch an ad campaigns thanking Democrats who voted for the bill. The AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions, said it would undertake a massive telephone campaign also thanking House Democrats who backed it.

The healthcare revamp was the latest step in a series of Democratic moves to drive the United States "down a road toward a European-style government," said Republican Senator Judd Gregg told reporters.

The drive "started off by essentially quasi-nationalization of the financial system, nationalization of the automobiles, quasi-nationalization of the health industry, and now this bill has in it, which nobody has focused on, the nationalization of the student loan industry," he said.

The "reconciliation" package of healthcare changes being debated by the Senate also would revamp the federal student loan program to end government subsidies to private lenders, shifting almost all student loan activity to the government.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll said Americans by 9 percentage points have a favorable view of the new law. By 49 to 40 percent, they say it was "a good thing" Congress passed the bill, USA Today said. That is better than earlier polling data showing public skepticism about the overhaul.

Obama used an unusually large number of pens -- about 20 -- to sign the measure. They will be distributed as souvenirs, many to legislators instrumental in pushing it through.

He continued his victory tour at a second ceremony as he launched a publicity blitz that Democrats hope will overcome widespread public doubt about the overhaul.

Obama urged Americans wary of reform and those he said had been confused by "all the noise" to check the facts. "I'm confident you'll like what you see," he said.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Alister Bull and Deborah Zabarenko in Washington, Jane Sutton in Miami and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; editing by Chris Wilson)

Source - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2017888120100324

[Mish]

"Immediately after the signing, attorneys general from 13 states - 12 Republicans and one Democrat - began legal proceedings against the federal government seeking to stop the reforms on the grounds that they are unconstitutional."

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8583350.stm]BBC News - Barack Obama signs landmark US healthcare bill into law[/url]

Making it illegal for insurance companies to deny people coverage for existing medical conditions is "unconstitutional" apparently

I find it hysterical that Republicans are crying socialism when most non socialist governments (including some conservative and right wing ones) around the world already have this implemented.

[Cbrider]

Either way, people like me who pay taxes and stay healthy end up with the tab for the idiots without coverage.

[dewilliams2]

What they are arguing is that it is an infringement on state rights by the federal government mandating that everybody have health insurance...but the thing that must be considered is that the federal government already states that everybody must have insurance when they turn 65...its called medicare....all the federal government had done is dropped the age to include absolutely everybody....it won't hold up in court...Republicans just don't like it because we are paying for this by taxing the richest people in our country which for the past 8 years experienced some of the lowest tax rates ever implemented under Bush....basically we are taxing them again.

As I've said in another thread before...we already have socialist aspects in our country...our police force, education k-12, and our military is funded by taxes and regulated/governed by the government....and I think most would agree that while all have certain issues they work for the most part.

Truly any form of government to a certain extent is socialist for the simple fact that they take in taxes in order to fund services for the people paying taxes...sounds like paying for a service which sounds like capitalism...all of a sudden these lines run so close together...shocking.

[dewilliams2]

Either way, people like me who pay taxes and stay healthy end up with the tab for the idiots without coverage.

You make more thatn 250,000.00 a year?...I am impressed my friend.

Also how exactly does not having insurance make them idiots?...some people working for small business do not have health coverage because their company cannot afford it...many times even the company owners cannot afford it.

Then there are those people who are out of work and with the economy being as it is...that is a lot of people.

Finally you must consider the people that even with options for health care they still simply cannot afford to have health insurance for themselves and their entire families.

What then happens is those people without health insurance go to the emergency room when they are in a far more severe condition then they should have been and it costs more money to treat them when many times simple preventative medicine would not have let it go that far.

Then when they do not pay a bill (which they also cannot afford) that is higher than it needed to be initially the medical industry is forced to drive up prices to cover their loses....that means higher prices for us...which means our insurance does not cover as much...so my friend one way or another your paying for it...but this way you will actually pay less unless like I stated initially you make more then 250,000.00 a year in which case congratulations.

[Cbrider]

You have one over sight in your argument, a vast amount of people VOLUNTARILY choose to not carry health insurance. I should not have to pay for those people.

I am sorry, but if you make a conscious decision to not carry health insurance and end up getting hurt, we should not have to cover you.

This whole cluster f-ck is really not that different than the recent depression; the root was arrogance among the people. People lived their lives on a line of credit, then pointed the finger at financial institutions for their financial woes. Personal accountability is something this country severely lacks, and its ever present, even in the health insurance realm.

Yes, there are people who truly can't afford health insurance and are a special case, but we are victims of our own devices. We let it deteriorate to this state because no one was held accountable. Its the same reason bankruptcy is viewed as an "acceptable" out these days.

[Mish]

You have one over sight in your argument, a vast amount of people VOLUNTARILY choose to not carry health insurance. I should not have to pay for those people.

I am sorry, but if you make a conscious decision to not carry health insurance and end up getting hurt, we should not have to cover you.

Does that mean that if they make a conscious decision to have health insurance, but can't afford it you are okay to pay for it?

Personally, I don't know of anyone who voluntarily chooses to not have any health insurance. I think everyone wants to have health insurance, but it becomes a difficult choice when it comes down to choosing between eating food or being covered.

[dewilliams2]

I would have to disagree...where is your research coming from that a large number of people in the country voluntarily do not carry health insurance for any other reason then it is not in their budget?...I'm not saying there isn't some that do it but I can't even imagine it being 1-3% of the population....of course as I said I have not seen this research you are remarking on....truly it would seem to me that most people would want health insurance if offered an option at a reasonable cost....once again we come back to financial availability...certainly they do chose to not have it...but that is mainly because they do not have the means to afford it an their choices are buying their children food and putting a roof over their head or having health insurance....so in that regard you are correct they make a choice...a choice they should not have to make.

I will not deny that people ran up their credit to far...however it must also be noted that those financial institutions made poor investment decisions and made irresponsible choices in allowing that credit line to stay open for those people continually finding themselves further in debt.

It is sort of like blaming the addict but not the dealer...in my opinion both parties made mistakes.

Finally you must also consider that not everybody in this country comes from a background of much education at all....some have no more up to junior high school, others have even less...many are simply ignorant...and you expect them to be more accountable than the ladies and gentlemen who spent great amounts of time cultivating their minds in our finest institutions so they could run our largest financial entities?...it simply seems unbalanced to me.

I'm not saying that everybody finding themselves in financial troubles are ignorant...some simply made poor decisions but those who invested all of their liquidity in their homes could not help that the price of homes bottomedout due to the banks poor decisions in investing in hedge funds and other bad loans that as they were defaulted upon put more homes on the market pushing home prices down resulting in the fact that they then owed more on their home then their home was actually worth meaning they had no credit....that may have been the largest run-on sentence I have ever written...think of it more like a rant then a sentence though.

[Gigabitch]

heh heh heh

[IMG][URL=http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k119/gigabitch/?action=view&current=obamaspackage.jpg][/URL][/IMG]

[the_robot]

It's funny this is considered socialism in the US... It's light years from what it's considered socialism here, and even that isn't socialism imo...

[dewilliams2]

^^^it isn't really considered socialism...Republicans just use that word as propaganda to scare people.

Socialism/communism is feared by many people here because of the Cold War...I was born at the end of the Cold War...I was 4 when the wall came down.

My mom on the other hand recalls having nuclear attack drills in high school...basically they were told to get under their desks...not so they would survive...just so they wouldn't see it coming.

There were just several generations taught to fear socialism...they think about Russia but truly there are many socialist democracies that do not trample peoples rights....many people simply to not understand political theory however.

With that said my parents are both liberals like myself and even though they grew up told to fear communists they were hippies and embrace most social policies.

[Gigabitch]

I would venture a guess that the majority of Americans have only a feeble understanding of what socialism actually is. It's not something that's taught in most high school civics classes.

[the_robot]

^^^it isn't really considered socialism...Republicans just use that word as propaganda to scare people.

Socialism/communism is feared by many people here because of the Cold War...I was born at the end of the Cold War...I was 4 when the wall came down.

My mom on the other hand recalls having nuclear attack drills in high school...basically they were told to get under their desks...not so they would survive...just so they wouldn't see it coming.

There were just several generations taught to fear socialism...they think about Russia but truly there are many socialist democracies that do not trample peoples rights....many people simply to not understand political theory however.

With that said my parents are both liberals like myself and even though they grew up told to fear communists they were hippies and embrace most social policies.

Brainwashing is sick.. I hate politicians using people like puppets because of it.

This is unpopular, but I'm not a democrat, I think people should pass an exam before being allowed to vote.

[dewilliams2]

Brainwashing is sick.. I hate politicians using people like puppets because of it.

This is unpopular, but I'm not a democrat, I think people should pass an exam before being allowed to vote.

Many people in this country don't even follow politics or have very little understanding of what is going on yet they still form opinions....it isn't so much brainwashing as it is swaying public opinion through aggressive marketing....brainwashing implies there was an idea to begin with...propaganda is used to cover up the truth or create beliefs where none previously were...as I said very few people have opinions on many issues....a lot of people do not even vote for our elected officials.

[dewilliams2]

I would venture a guess that the majority of Americans have only a feeble understanding of what socialism actually is. It's not something that's taught in most high school civics classes.

One of the biggest problems is that even the instructors have their own political opinions that they allow to influence what the teach....I went to a very conservative high school and I actually remember my Spanish teacher telling people that they should vote for George Bush because he was a Christian and Democrats don't believe in god....I pretty much verbally ripped her head off and shit down her throat....she shut her mouth when I brought up the word lawsuit.