President Obama signs historic health care reform into law

In a March 23 ceremony at the White House, President Barack Obama signed landmark health care reform legislation.

Some aspects of the new law will be implemented immediately or within six months. These include tight regulation of insurance companies, rebates to begin to close the Medicare prescription drug 'donut hole,' and provisions to improve health security for all (such as ending lifetime caps on benefits, stopping insurance companies from denying coverage for children with pre-existing conditions, and allowing parents to carry their children on their insurance through age 26).

Others parts of the law will be fully implemented by 2014. These include a total ban on discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, insurance "exchanges" under which individuals can purchase good coverage, and subsidies for those who can't afford it.

In all, these historic reforms will help contain health care costs for every American, and provide health insurance for more than 30 million people who now lack it.

For more than 100 years, presidents have tried and failed to reform our health care system. We can all pause a moment and savor the momentous achievement of President Obama and the Members of Congress--all of them Democrats--whose leadership overcame desperate resistance from the big insurance companies and their Republican friends in Washington.

Health care reform is exactly the sort of change Illinois AFSCME members believed in when we backed Barack Obama's long-shot presidential bid from the start. We all have a share in bringing about this day in history, and we are going to keep fighting to carry it on--to rebuild our economy and so much more.

Read more about what the health care reform bill will mean for you and your family now and going forward.