2010 Reconciliation Act

“THIS IS WHAT CHANGE LOOKS LIKE.”
President Obama

If this is what change looks like, I must admit it is not very charming. For all of you that may have had your weapons primed, your epithets at the ready, and your cross hairs focused on killing any kind of bill that changed health care, forget about it. The 2010 Reconciliation Act has passed.

I have been registered as an Independent since college because there was nothing I wanted to be affiliated with that was always Democratic or always Republican. There was never a platform where all of one party was right and all the others wrong. Voting down your party’s line never made sense to me. My father was Republican and my mother was a Democrat. Every election they would cancel out each other’s vote.

The lack of bi-partisanship cooperation on both sides in making this historical legislation was shameful. The Democrats only won because there are more of them then Republicans in the House of Representatives, plus one more asset. Above all else they had the leadership of President Barrack Obama. If there is anything to be learned from this undignified procession of debates and name calling it is the qualities of a man that holds no fear for his convictions.

The full quart press he put on in and outside Washington D. C. against his dissenters earns him a place in history that very few presidents can be proud to say they won. Even though he did not get one Republican vote he put his entire presidency on the line just to hold his own party together. Yes, he compromised, but that is how things change. If you want to see what change looks like, look at President Obama.

If you want to know how the 2010 Reconciliation Act affects you is a lot more difficult to discern. The problem is you can’t answer the question because you have no knowledge of how whatever has been bestowed upon us will be implemented. We know it mandates another huge government administrative agency and that is never good.

We are told the immediate effects are that children cannot be denied insurance due to preexisting conditions, and we can keep our older children on the family plan until they are 26 years old. That must be helpful to a certain percent of the population. But that’s no trillion dollars worth. And how 30,000,000 more Americans are going to become insured over the next ten years begins to boggle the mind – particularly when they say this is legislation drafted to include more of the middle class. Just how far down does the middle class go?

The most important part of the Bill affecting my life is the right to purchase new insurance at a reasonable price even though you have a previous condition. This otherwise means not being able to purchase insurance if you have been to a doctor in the last ten years as a result of atria fibrillation, or fluttering heartbeat. Never mind if you have climbed 100 mountains over 16,000 feet since then. You may presently still be uninsurable.

That is all suppose to change, but not until the year 2014. That means Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield can still more than double my monthly premium from $778.00 to $1584 every month for one reason: A week ago I was 59 years old and the next day I was 60 years old. I mean this very sincerely when I say one day’s difference is not worth almost ten thousand dollars a year for insurance.

But they are allowing it to go on for four more years! I understand there were eight lobbyists for every House Representative voting but Obama stated after it passed, “This reform just gave you more control by reigning in the worst excesses and abuses of the insurance industry.” It’s hard to understand why they would make us wait four more years unless this is not considered one of the worst excesses. Perhaps Obama should have made more than the 92 personal calls they report to rally the Representatives.

I am happy the Bill passed because I have sued insurance companies to get people their proper due for twenty-five years and insurance companies have been abusing as much as they can during that period. At least this Bill recognizes some of those abuses and can be called a start. All it can do is get better.

Mark S. Cornwall, 3/22/2010