Monday, March 22, 2010

Back from the Dead




"Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats."

"This is what change looks like," Obama said a few moments later in televised remarks that stirred memories of his 2008 campaign promise of Change we can believe in"

"Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage."

"change we can believe in."



So after I tried to brainstorm other blog topics, I wondered if some obscure bill passed in a land has any relevance to my life as an ignorant dependent student.


So, I looked it up

For me, if I move out of my parent's basement and fail to find a job due to IT STILL BEING AN ECONOMIC RECESSION, I can still be covered on my parent's plan as a dependent until I'm 26. By 2013, presuming I can get a job cleaning the accumulated dust from sugarless vending machines, then, because I'm not worth employee health coverage, I can be eligible for state subsidies for health insurance assuming my employer doesn't pay me more than four times the poverty level (and what a weird employer that would be.)

For my parents, by the end of this year they will recieve a $250 rebate on their keeping-old-people-alive pills. Assuming the pills work, by 2020, the doughnut hole gap will supposedly be completely closed and they will only have to pay 25% of prescription drug costs.


So lets talk about complexity. It was recently brought up, rhetorically, in one of the rooms full of mewling zombies with which I'm forced to coexist with, that the Highway Act of 1956 created the most revolutionary acts in history, revolutionizing the way individuals travel from one shining sea to another, while the Health Care bill takes up over 2,000 pages. I didn't answer by calling them an ignorant twat and pointing out that the myriad manifestations of unhealthiness and the even greater number of ways to deal with them that is affected by every possible age, gender, relationship status, business ownership, employment, and how you squeeze your toothpaste, and every combination thereof, was definitely NOT comparable to pouring asphalt over a road for people who drive either cars, trucks, or motercycles (although I'm not sure of the latter was invented yet). In short, medicine is complicated, and medical insurers manage to muck up the system even more by discriminating against different demographics. It's good to see that all that work has not been to waste.

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