Inching toward progress

On Sunday the House of Representatives passed the Senate's version of the health care bill, after some final, last-minute deals between President Obama and a half-dozen anti-abortion Democrats. They promptly passed a package of "fixes" to deal with minor issues more progressive members of the House had with the bill.

The Senate is set to vote on that package soon (if they haven't already by the time this is printed). Republicans, of course, didn't cast a single vote in favor of these bills. As soon as they were passed they began talking into every camera they could find saying that they would repeal the bill.

This idea is insane. The Republicans would need to win well over 100 House seats and 16 Senate seats to have veto-proof majorities in both houses. Even in the wildest dreams of any sane Republican strategist that just isn't going to happen. So they're saying this really just as a fundraising tactic, and it will probably net them quite a lot of cash.

All of the legal challenges in federal courts that were started Tuesday are laughably weak and have virtually no chance of holding up in court. Several states have passed laws to try to exempt themselves from the federal standards, but this country long ago settled the question of whether federal law trumped state law when they were in conflict.

Still, the bill is far from perfect. It doesn't create a single-payer system (as most other developed Western nations have) or even a relatively tame public option for people to buy into. It doesn't even lower the minimum age to enroll in Medicare.

The bill forces people to buy health insurance or face a fine by 2014, while setting up new "health care exchanges" to increase competition. Without a public option I'm not a huge fan of this idea, but I feel that one can be created, hopefully sooner rather than later.

The new legislation — signed into law by President Obama on March 22 — does contain a number of small but important fixes to the current system: it will prevent insurance providers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions; it eliminates lifetime caps on insurance payouts and eventually yearly caps too.

It provides generous tax credits for businesses to provide their employees with coverage, and gives vouchers to individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level to purchase insurance. It will also let us college students stay on our parents' health care plans until we turn 26—one I am particularly fond of with my 21st birthday only a few months away.

We are far from fully covering everyone in the country — the bill leaves 12-15 million people uncovered — but it is a step in the right direction to bring down health care costs and to reign in the terrible practices of the health insurance industry.

So say hello to the New Health Care, Same as the Old Health Care (mostly). It's all a step in the right direction, and it's turning into fundamental argument about whether or not government should, or is capable of addressing large, persistent problems in our country that the people and the market cannot correct on their own. You likely will only see some modest changes for now and even after all the measures of the bill go into effect, but it is a solid statement that we can and will confront challenges that face the nation. Like I said, it's a step in the right direction. We're inching toward progress on this, but that is, for now, better than nothing.