What a week. First the House passes the Senate version of the Health Care Reform bill. Then they pass a reconciliation bill that the Senate has agreed that they will pass. Then the reconciliation bill gets modified by the Senate and then the House votes on the modified Senate version. The President signs the first bill with great ceremony, is awaiting the second bill to sign as I write this and is now heading out on the road to begin to “sell” the plan to the American public. Does any of this confuse you? Well, just wait.
Hours after the President signed the bill more than a dozen States launched litigation about the constitutionality of the bill. Most legal scholars do not feel that the suit will prevail but what would another stage of health care reform be without more drama.
Meanwhile, AT&T announced that they will take a $1 billion non-cash accounting charge in the first quarter because of the health care overhaul and may cut benefits it offers to current and retired workers. This charge is the just the latest from more than a dozen companies that have made similar announcements but the size of AT&T’s impact has gotten Wall Street’s attention.
While we can each speculate about the constitutionality of the bill its impacts to large corporations, small businesses, and individuals; it is unmistakable that change is inevitable. In fact, for the first time in over a year, we now have a much clearer view of the changes that will potentially take place.
Our focus will now be on making sure that we help each of our readers understand the far reaching impacts of the bill and its implementation. As we do so over the next weeks and months we do know that over the next 90 days the focus will be on the government establishing a federally funded program to cover people turned down by private insurers because they have a pre-existing medical condition. This will be the first true test to how health care reform will take effect and to see how the federal government really handles this complex legislation.
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Just wanted to say that I
Just wanted to say that I like your blog and find it informative. I would like someone to explain to me what the ramifications will be for independent agents when they set up the national healthcare exchange.
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