Hey hey,

After much ado/bile/vitriol/brouhaha, Barack Obama,  just over a year after being elected Prez, will be signing drastic healthcare reform in law. Maybe you’ve heard about that little (HUGE) story.

What the hell does it actually mean though?

Good question. I don’t really know, so let’s begin this learning journey together!

Let’s look at Sir Whutz’s main questions about reform:

- Why is it such a big deal?

- Why were republicans so against it?

- What does it mean for regular people?

- Will it cost us money, benefit us, or just be some BS we will never notice?

For today, let’s start with question #1:

Why is it such a big deal?

Healthcare in this country is not universal. Which is to say not everyone can see a doctor, get medicine, treatement etc. when they need it. Why is this significant?

Most wealthy nations have some form of universal healthcare. We do not, with 1 in 5 adults (40-46 million people) going without any coverage.

It’s worth noting that other countries are more homogenous and have less drastic levels of income inequality, which may lead to a society more open to the idea of the government getting involved in healthcare to ensure some form of coverage for everyone.

But 44 million people (including Mr. Me Pecan) without access to healthcare is absurd. These people are one fall, sickness or injury away from incurring MASSIVE (and steadily rising) healthcare costs.  So something had to be done.

And something was done. To the tune of $940 Billion. Nine hundred. Forty. Billion. Taxpayer dollars.

The biggest change in domestic policy in…quite some time! The dream of progressives since the 1960s! The pending doom of the nation according to Conservatives!

I’ll be digging into this issue more in the next couple of days, but for now, enjoy CSM’s HealthCare 101.