H.R.3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act

I wanted to feel happy that the House of Representatives passed the President's Health Care Reform Bill by a very narrow margin last Saturday night. I wanted to celebrate, but I had an uneasy feeling about it all because I really didn't know what the bill actually said. After spending my Sunday morning in the usual way, i.e., watching the Washington talk shows, I still didn't know much about what the bill says. I knew which of the panelists were anti-big-government and anti-spending. I knew how many times the word "shall" appears in the 1900+ page document (something like 3,400 or more), but very little about which parts of our ailing health care system were being reformed.

I did an Internet search and found Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's web site http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/legislation?id=0327. There is a list of several different ways to become familiar with the details of the bill. There is a full pdf version, a full html version, a 4-page summary, a 10-page summary, and several other forms of information. I, of course, chose the 4-page summary, and while I probably did miss out on some of the specifics, I think I am now on firmer ground for coming to conclusions about the bill.

Several items particularly caught my eye:
1. Parents will be able to keep their young adult children on the family insurance plan until his or her 28th birthday, instead of the 24th birthday.
2. Obscure pre-existing conditions will no longer be an impediment to getting health insurance, because the insurance companies will only be allowed to look back 30 days into the applicants medical history instead of the current 6-month window.
3. No public monies may be used for abortions, except in the case of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.
4. A history of domestic violence will no longer qualify as a pre-existing condition.

I now understand why this document is nearly 2000 pages long. The level of detail in this bill is, while overwhelming, truly necessary to cover the many issues faced by ordinary Americans.
Am I ready to celebrate? Not quite. I still don't understand how all of this is supposed to be funded, and until I know just how large or small an addition to an already unwieldy bureaucracy will result from this bill, I will not be cheering.

Oh, yes. And about item number 3 above: I can hear the sounds of escalating outrage among women coming closer and closer. The next stage of this debate will be a barn burner!