How Do You Feel About Health Care Reform?

@Cynthia: actually, that is not correct. The specifics of the health reform bill state that if you are satisfied with your insurance, you can keep it. If you are financially unable to afford minimum insurance, you can be exempted, and you will be directed to the appropriate source to obtain healthcare. We have to start somewhere, and it's NOT going to start with the fatcat insurance bigwigs who refuse lifesaving care to dying children and people with chronic health conditions who have nowhere to turn.

What a mess. Reform should have started where the problems began THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY/INSURANCE COMPANIES. Forcing hard working law abiding people who are stuggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table to another mandatory expence does not solve the root of the problem.

its so difficult to imagine the same people who delivered us the post office will now bring us healthcare. By govt very nature they are postioned to fail. I can only hope that we will have a federal express or UPS form of private healthcare to rescue us from its demise. My fear is that the govt. will regulate private enterprise so this will not exist. That would be the real crime. The french and english are headed in our direction and we are trying to emulate them.

I agree with Dee and Jezebel They had to get the ball rolling. A bill can amended but pressure on Insurance companies to allow coverage to people with a heart palpition, seizure disorder, gastro disorder, Kidney problem, etc. Something a lot of Tea party and Fox news people must not have or understand.
I see Brack's point of reliance, but does he also think that of the military and postal service? Some governmental regulation and oversight is needed (ie life insurance) a free for all is what WALL STREET had, and look what happened there.

Everyone should be wary of a problem that someone 'fixes' for you. It is a said statement on the current and past state of health care, when the only way revision takes place is from the outside. This is a problem with a cancerous system, that a quick surgical approach cannot fix. For years the approach was "Physician heal thyself", and health care stood true; it could heal others, but not its self. This is a huge tumorous lesion built of greed and necessity.......this is big business with your life at stake. Change has to come, good or bad.

I think this bill has a LOT of imperfect things in it, but they had to start somewhere---it's been over 60 years that several presidents have attempted to make progress with health care reform. Will there be problems? Of course---it would be unrealistic to believe otherwise. I personally and professionally have seen many people "rejected" by the insurance companies, for no good reason. It was time.

This plan goes to show you that the minority in this country have so much more power than will ever be realized. The push population to have universal health coverage was the 15 - 90 million Americans who were uninsured, at least that was "a" major push behind it. How many Americans are there? 307 million. At best this plan was not for the "general welfare" of our country but was for the "general welfare" of 29% of the U.S. population.

Mark my words, this will spell the demise of personal health responsibility. Why? Because every time we push responsibility to our government, we lose the ability to make our own lives any better. When was the last time you picked up trash on ground? or taught your children algebra? or spent your paycheck on getting out of debt rather than a vacation? or fixed a meal for a needy neighbor? I'd bet rarely if at all, and its because we have left those responsibilities to our uncle sam. He will take care of it. There's so much more......

I would be excited if this reform actually did help small-business owners, because the cost of insuring yourself, your family, and your handful of employees is astronomical. My parents own a small business and insurance is one of their largest costs of running their business.

I am also glad that people who were denied insurance before because of "existing conditions" will also have the chance to get health coverage, but it just makes me wonder ... yeah they can have insurance now, but is it going to cost them and arm and a leg; or are they going to have access to the crappiest plan available.

I am skeptical about the overall effectiveness of the plan ... but I hope for everyone who would benefit from it that it actually works.

Well, the bill certainly isn't perfect, but it's better than nothing. I am a 30-year-old, healthy, non-smoking, regularly-exercising woman, and I got rejected by three insurance companies when I was looking for individual coverage a few years ago. Apparently having had an ulcer once and the fact that I could conceivably get pregnant means that I'm too much of a risk. I hope the next step in reform is to try to add some sort of public plan to compete with the private ones.

In a perfect world, I'd like to see the whole insurance system become non-profit. I believe that there are some businesses that simply should not be run as for-profit entities. Health insurers, prisons, public schools, etc. I believe it is deeply immoral for someone to be making money off of these enterprises.