The House passed a health care bill. Just what did they pass?

Health Care Reform Update: Who’s Selling Out and Why

"It’s time to evaluate where health care reform stands at this point.

"Guaranteed Issue: The best thing about the bill is unquestionably the fact that insurers have to issue policies to anyone who can pay. No one can be denied coverage, no matter what pre-existing conditions they have. This is a big deal. While it can help people of any age, it is most important to older people, who are more likely to have pre-existing conditions. This also helps people who are stuck with very expensive insurance because they have pre-existing conditions and if they cancel their insurance wouldn’t be able to get new insurance.

"Individual Mandates and cost sharing: An individual mandate forces people to buy insurance whether they want to or not. Insurance works better when everyone is covered and in the same risk pool. It also shares costs throughout the population. Individual mandates seem unfair, but they are generally instituted as part of changes to the system which reduce overall costs significantly. For example, relatively speaking, Canadian GDP/capita costs were reduced by one third compared to what they would have risen to otherwise during the ten years after changing from a US style system to single payer."

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