The 'Health Care Overhaul Bill' Passes in the Senate - Obama's First (amputated) Deliverable?

The Health Care Overhaul Bill was passed in the senate on a party line vote of 60 - 39, and President Obama called it “the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act passed in the 1930s ......With today's vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country,.... Our challenge, then, is to finish the job. We can't doom another generation of Americans to soaring costs and eroding coverage and exploding deficits."

The Bill at a glance:

• it will not offer the public option
• it will not offer illegal residents coverage, even if they can pay for it themselves
• it will almost certainly increase by at least 30 million the number of people covered by government and private health insurance.
• it will for the first time require most individuals to buy health insurance
• it also will offer federal subsidies to help pay premiums
• it will impose penalties on employers that do not offer workers affordable policies
• it will set up an insurance exchange where individuals can shop for coverage if they have no job-based coverage
• it will make insurance companies end practices that have made it hard for people to get coverage when they get sick or have a chronic disease by setting caps on total payments, for example, or denying coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition
• it will let young adults stay longer on their parents' health plan
• it will allow families free preventive health care such as well-baby visits and mammograms.
• it will give health care professionals incentives to provide more cost-effective care and face penalties if they do not
• it will give Americans the right to live a healthy life