Can someone explain the 2010 health reform to me simply please? Any documents about it that's easy to understand for the everyperson?

Chris I read both answers here , both where not only very disappointed they both had personal motives involved in answering your question a clear concise manner . And did nothing to answer your question. All in all basically what the president in the US is trying to do is take the cadillac healthcare package available to federal employees and make it available to everyone else .

He 's trying to make healthcare _affordable_. He's going about doing that by setting mandates to modernize the healthcare industries use of technologies and in the latest form of the bill making doctors police other doctors. In my humble opinion the latest bill has some meager potential.As for Obama, I don't know the man, Don't have any motive either way, this healthcare bill would have no affect on me or my family.

And frankly don't really care. It might on you if you however. The problems and hurdles with this bill is the cost and the pressure put on the health insurance companies.

My dad sold health insurance for 25 years in the US , he was only a broker , however I know a bill like this would have hurt him if he was still a insurance broker. It also doesn't FULLY cover dental and eye . I believe dental coverage is extremely important.

And the bill is full of bloat. All in all everything starts and ends with what we put in our mouths! PN: Here is a clear concise document bank rolled by the kaiser foundation (a 3rd party with also no ulterior motives) explaining both versions of the final bills in clear terms.

kff.org/healthreform/upload/housesenateb... kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm.

There are two versions, the one passed by the Senate and the one passed by the House. It now looks as if the Senate version will be adopted and then it will be modified but the modifications are still being debated and worked out. This link includes the full text and various levels of summary: dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-sen_health_care_bi... I would like to point out that nowhere in this bill is Free Beer for All Americans guaranteed, which in my opinion is a glaring omission.

However, these things are a matter of compromise and it is clearly a big step forward. Here is the summary so that you don't have to click around: -------------" Summary The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care and will create the transformation within the health care system necessary to contain costs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended, is fully paid for, will provide coverage to more than 94 percent of Americans while staying under the $900 billion limit that President Obama established, bending the health care cost curve, and reducing the deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years, with additional deficit reductions in the following years.

Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes immediate changes to the way health insurance companies do business to protect consumers from discriminatory practices and provide Americans with better preventive coverage and the information they need to make informed decisions about their health insurance. σ¼ Uninsured Americans with a pre-existing condition will have access to an immediate insurance program to help them avoid medical bankruptcy and retirees will have greater certainty due to reinsurance provisions to help maintain coverage. σ¼ New health insurance Exchanges will make coverage affordable and accessible for individuals and small businesses.

Premium tax credits and cost-sharing assistance will help those who need assistance. σ¼ Insurance companies will be barred from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions, health status, and gender. σ¼ A substantial investment in Community Health Centers will provide funding to expand access to health care in communities where it is needed most.

The Role of Public Programs  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands eligibility for Medicaid to include all non-elderly Americans with income below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), with substantial assistance to States for the cost of covering these individuals. σ¼ The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act maintains current funding levels for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for an additional two years, through fiscal year 2015. Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Health Care  Congress is committed to protecting and strengthening the Medicare program for America’s seniors.

Medicare is a sacred trust with seniors and people with disabilities, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will ensure that trust is preserved. The cost of inaction is unacceptable for seniors and the Medicare program that serves them; without action, the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund is expected to go broke in just over seven years. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will make Medicare a stronger, more sustainable program.

σ¼ Medicare currently reimburses health care providers on the basis of the volume of care they provide rather than the value of care. For each test, scan or procedure conducted, Medicare provides a separate payment, rewarding those who do more, regardless of whether the test or treatment contributes to helping a patient recover. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes a number of proposals to move away from the “a la carte” Medicare fee”for”service system toward paying for quality and value and reducing costs to America’s seniors.

Preventing Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act promotes preventive health care and improves the public health to help Americans live healthy lives and help restrain the growth of health care costs over time. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will eliminate co-pays and deductibles for recommended preventive care, including preventive care for women, provide individuals with the information they need to make healthy decisions, improve education on disease prevention and public health, and invest in a national prevention and public health strategy. Health Care Workforce  Currently, 65 million Americans live in communities where they cannot easily access a primary care provider, and an additional 16,500 practitioners are required to meet their needs.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will address shortages in primary care and other areas of practice by making necessary investments in our nation’s health care workforce. Specifically, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will invest in the National Health Service Corps, scholarship and loan repayment programs to expand the health care workforce. The bill also includes incentives for primary care practitioners and for providers to serve underserved areas.

Transparency and Program Integrity  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will provide consumers with information about physician ownership of hospitals and medical equipment as well as nursing home ownership and other characteristics. The bill also includes provisions that will crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and private insurance. Finally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will establish a private, non-profit entity to identify priorities for and provide for the conduct of comparative outcomes research.

Improving Access to Innovative Medical Therapies  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will establish a regulatory pathway for FDA approval of biosimilar versions of previously licensed biological products. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will also expand the scope of the existing 340B drug discount program, so that patients at children’s hospitals, cancer hospitals, rural hospitals and in other underserved communities have access to medicines at lower cost. Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS)  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will make long-term supports and services more affordable for millions of Americans by providing a lifetime cash benefit that will help people with severe disabilities remain in their homes and communities.

CLASS is a voluntary, self-funded, insurance program provided through the workplace. For those whose employers participate, affordable premiums will be paid through payroll deductions. Participation by workers is entirely voluntary.

The Congressional Budget Office confirms that the program, which has been revised from earlier versions, is actuarially sound. Revenue Provisions  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is fully paid for and reduces the deficit in the next ten years and beyond. The revenue provisions in the bill focus on paying for reform within the health care system.

This is accomplished by tightening current health tax incentives, collecting industry fees, and slightly increasing the Medicare Hospital Insurance tax for individuals who earn more than $200,000 and couples who earn more than $250,000. This increase will not only help fund health care reform, but, when combined with other provisions in the bill, will also extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by nine years to 2026. The bill also includes a fee on insurance companies when they sell high cost health insurance plans, designed to generate smarter, more cost-effective health coverage choices.

Changes to health care tax incentives include capping FSA contributions, conforming definitions of deductible medical expenses and changing penalties for HSA spending that is not devoted to health care. The industry fees reflect responsible contributions from industries who have long profited from health care and who will benefit from the expanded coverage of millions of additional Americans under health care reform. The bill also assesses a small excise tax on indoor tanning services.

Together, these revenue provisions represent a balanced, responsible package of proposals that bend the health care cost curve by putting downward pressure on health spending.

The health deform - - er, REform - - bill is a hastily put together package of excessive spending in a time when restraint and cutbacks are required. As such, it is a thinly veiled tax on over 150 million Americans (i.e. , those who are working, with most having some form of health insurance), while forcing over 100 million to buy something most neither want nor need (i.e.

, not everyone is in need of medical assistance, either by their good health or by having enough money to pay for it, should they need it), all to benefit the 30 million or so (approx 10% of the US population) who have no insurance or job; that is called "socialism", which is against most Americans' concept of a Democracy where the individual pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness (and, yes, even health), should not allow a tiny group of people to be given what the vast majority have worked hard to obtain. The rationale of any of the health plans out there, is that once the 30 million are covered (again, paid for with the taxes of others), they will magically be able to get the medical care they need. Never mind that doctors, dentists, etc, are overburdened as it is, which would result in exceedingly long wait times (I spent 2 hours waiting at my last doctor's visit, in which he spent 10 minutes telling me I'm "okay"), which would, eventually, require Federal and State laws to reduce the times it takes for interns to become doctors, thus increasing the likelihood of malpractice, if not sheer exhaustion.

Rather than foisting poorly considered, overly broad health plans, on the American people, Congress and the Senate should have targeted the current state of affairs (i.e. , fixing Medicaid and Medicare, reducing the cost of overpriced drugs, improving peer and private oversight of medical personnel and facilities, eliminating frivolous medical malpractice suits, etc). But, it's easier to create new boondoggles than to fix the old ones.

That the health plan has either barely passed Congress by 5 votes, while it failed in the Senate, with both votes cast mostly along party lines, clearly indicates that nobody thinks the health plan is a good idea (i.e. , those who voted for it, are simply "yes-men", while those who voted against it are probably terrified of the inevitable backlashes that would end their political careers). One more thing to consider: In the history of the United States of America, can you name ONE Federal plan, bill, law, budget, project, department, bureau, etc, that has come in at or under budget?

I can't! What do you think is going to happen with the estimated $1 TRILLION dollar health plan? The only "good" thing about the health plan - - whether it passes or (hopefully) fails - - is that everyone will say how valiant President Obama was in trying to help poor, unfortunate, individuals (never mind that 20 million people are currently out of work; who's helping them?), even at the risk of furthering the crippling US debt, created by his predecessor.

It is a win-win situation for the Democrats, who nominated a minority to the Presidency to assuage minority voters, and a win-win situation for Republicans, who can now say that Democrats have no better plan to run the country than Republicans. In other words, an inept, black, Democrat (BO), is just as bad as an inept, white, Republican (GWB, Jr.). So, let's kill the health plan bill, so that everyone can shrug and say, "Oh, well .

. . We tried, but the others lied!

" Here's something else to consider: Either of the two current wars (i.e. , Iraq and Afghanistan) cost over $30 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY! In other words, a MONTH of the war would NOT pay for even ONE month of the health plan!

THINK ABOUT THAT! I don't hear anybody trying to stop the war, do you? And what about jobs for the unemployed?

(keep in mind that there are far more unemployed who are NOT counted because they have exhausted their unemployment benefits) Fix the potholes. Eliminate the gangs running our streets. Improve the ecosystem.

Create jobs. Stop the wars and stop trying to be the world's police. THEN we can talk about health plans!

We need another FDR. We need to nominate and elect a businessman or economist, not politicos, lawyers, etc., who know nothing about how to fix the economy. "Change we need" .

.. Indeed! Thus endeth the rant. ;).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.