Obama's Healthcare Changes: More a Reform than an Overhaul

On March 21, health care reform passed through the House of Representatives, and on Tuesday March 23, Obama signed the bill into law. During his campaign and the first year of his term, Obama made clear what he wanted to be included in the bill and how it would help Americans, but, in the course of passing the bill through congress, he made many concessions and compromises that made the bill that finally passed very different from the one about which so much was heard.

In all of the excitement, what is actually in the final iteration of the bill has been downplayed. In short, Americans are not getting universal health care. It is a reform, not an overhaul. By now, anyone who has paid attention to anything Obama has said over the last three years is aware that 32 million Americans don't have health insurance. The bill is intended to make health care cheaper and will offer a public option.

For the approximately 275 million Americans who already have insurance, what effects the bill will have are less clear.

The bill will affect students this year by raising the age until which dependents can stay on their parents' insurance to 26. This will mean that more students will be eligible to stay on their parents' insurance, which in some cases will be less expensive than The New School's plan, which, next year, will cost $1,817.

Jayne Jordan, The New School's director of student health services and student health insurance manager, was clear that she was not an expert on the bill, but said, overall, that she thinks it is good. “I think it is imperfect, of course, but it is also monumental. Democratic leaders have been trying to reform health care in some way since F.D.R. I would say this health care reform bill is the first major step in that process,” Jordan said.

The changes in price will help students, as will the possibility of staying on family insurance, even after graduation. Penalties and tax breaks will also help more businesses provide insurance.