This Week in CQ Researcher

Health-Care Reform
by Marcia Clemmitt, June 11, 2010

Is the landmark new plan a good idea?

The health-care reform legislation signed into law by President Obama on March 23 marked the biggest attempt to expand access to health care since Medicare and Medicaid were launched in the 1960s. The massive legislation will help 32 million Americans get health insurance coverage and bans insurers from denying coverage to those with preexisting illnesses. It also expands Medicaid to all poor people – except illegal immigrants – and gives subsidies to low- and low-middle-income people to buy insurance.

Opponents, including every Republican member of Congress, say the coverage expansion is simply too expensive, at a price tag of about $1 trillion over 10 years. They also say new fees and taxes to help pay for the coverage place too big a burden on currently insured people. Meanwhile, a group of state attorneys general is challenging the constitutionality of the law’s requirement that everyone buy health insurance.

• Is the new health-care reform law a good idea?
  
• Will people with insurance lose out under the new law?
  
• Will health care reform make care more affordable?

To read this article and others visit our Articles and Databases webpage and click on CQ Researcher. Select the Off Campus Access link for information on how to access this resource from off campus locations.