http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/740509

(I know there are better newspapers I could have linked to but this was easiest)

Wow this is an inaccurate article. Though I am by all means happy the bill passed, what Americans are getting is nowhere near universal health care. Everyone is essentially being forced to buy health care form private insurance companies, without a public option at a lower cost. However, the government will subsidize the lower class to buy health care, and will regulate the insurance companies more heavily. This is a similar system to what they have in Switzerland, where it works pretty well, so we'll see how it goes.

Also, the anti-abortion democrat goes by Bart Stupak, and he's a congressman from Michigan. I don't think there exists a congressman Tom Stupak from Ohio....

Its unfortunate that I think the democrats are kind of damned if they don't, damned if they do on this one. If they didn't pass it the whole country would have thought them incompetent, and now that they have passed it, it will take years for most of the effects to be known, and the republicans will still be calling them socialists all the way up to the midterms.

Either way, good work Obama and dems...they screwed up the process pretty bad but at least they got something done. Now onto cap-and-trade!

It's not universal healthcare, although it's a step in the right direction.

Not even close to universal though.

Well they're supposed to implement it by 2014.
By then, there's always a chance of having a new guy in the office who immediately reverses it. Somehow I don't think I'll be surprised of US if that happens.

They did pass a bill to switch to the metric system a few decades ago. We all saw how well that worked out.

Yes, like I said, there are MUCH better newspapers to cite. I just happened to have The Spec open when posting.

As for Tom Stupak, I was confused as well. His full name is Bartholomew Thomas Stupak. I guess he goes by "Tom" and "Bart".

Originally Posted by larp

They did pass a bill to switch to the metric system a few decades ago. We all saw how well that worked out.

The US government actually operates in metric to make it easier to work on the international level. The general public has resisted any change.

Not a single Republican voted for it. The American system is so ridiculously polarized.

This is garbage. It completely missed the MOST important issues, and delivered a piece of garbage that does nothing but piss people off.

The bill that was passed was so horribly neutered from the original proposal that it's not going to make a big change other than pissing off middle class families that weren't buying health insurance to save money by forcing them to buy it.

The whole drama surrounding healthcare is ridiculous right now and it's almost funny watching how republicans and FOX news are turning small disagreement on healthcare reform (there are really only a few points both sides disagree on in the final proposal for the bill) into some huge dividing issue. The Democrats could've passed the exact bill the republicans were proposing and none of them would've voted for it since they've made it clear this is about political gain and not about what's best for the people.

Gah, I was a much happier person before I started caring about politics :(

Originally Posted by Tailsnake

Gah, I was a much happier person before I started caring about politics :(

Don't worry it will stop in a few years. I went through that phase too

Originally Posted by britb

Not a single Republican voted for it. The American system is so ridiculously polarized.

Apparently it used to be that Dem and Rep votes often overlapped with one another... but now the most liberal Rep is more right than the most Conservative Dem and vice versa.

Big deal a bill got passed, its still not a law. Come the time the bill even gets a chance at becoming a law, there will probably be a congress election and if the republicans take the majority, or more democrats opposing the bill come into office, there is no slight chance at health care.

I find it funny how the media has been glamorizing this like its actually progress being made. Congress voted against bailing out banks, but the government ended up bailing out the banks from their debt.

There's also too many different laws for each state for me to even believe they would ever have universal health care. Unless they unify there state laws, and reduce the contrast between states, I don't think the bill passing means anything.

Originally Posted by shes-a-diva*

Big deal a bill got passed, its still not a law. Come the time the bill even gets a chance at becoming a law, there will probably be a congress election and if the republicans take the majority, or more democrats opposing the bill come into office, there is no slight chance at health care.

Once these measures actually come into effect, for most this will be 2014, it will be incredibly difficult to repeal the bill. The government would have a very hard time taking away benefits from people that have them.

So that basically leaves opponents of the bill up until 2014 to repeal it. Considering President Obama is in office until at least January 2013, and will veto any repeal, the republicans will have a window of about 11 months (Between January 2013 and December 2013) to make any attempt at a repeal.

Then, for the republicans to repeal this bill at any time during those 11 months, they will need a majority in the House, 60 votes in the senate, and they will need a republican president in office.

Though not impossible, if I had to put money on it, I'd say that chances of that are pretty low, and that this bill will be fully implemented.

Originally Posted by J-Met

Though not impossible, if I had to put money on it, I'd say that chances of that are pretty low, and that this bill will be fully implemented.

Although I generally like to think optimistically.. reality is the government voted against bailing out the banks, and that decision was over turned. The fact is that the bill was passed by democratic votes alone, and there were some democrats that voted with republicans opposing it.

The bail out funding was achieved by bribes, and although there is a small window of time to over turn the decision.. I wouldn't doubt that bribes would be used to influence votes. I do agree that the bill should be passed and become law, but the only ones benefitting from it are those with pre-existing conditions and those who can't afford insurance.

Everyone who voted for the bill is not going to benefit from its passing. They are going to get taxed more, and their dollars will be helping people they probably could careless about. The US is a capitalistic country and I wouldn't doubt that greed would once again prevail. Mind you, I don't know much about politics, but I'm pretty sure the bill passing still means nothing. I guess we'll have to see what happens next.

Also, there will be a senate election November of this year.

The bill was passed by 219 democrats, and opposed by 178 republicans and 34 democrats. If bribes don't change the votes of congressmen, the election in November might. Think of all those who are not wanting to be taxed more, who may in fact vote for a republican to protect them from this.

Republicans don't want healthcare and guaranteed if more of them come into power in November the bill holds no chance.