On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed historic health care reform legislation that while not perfect will lead to significant improvements in health coverage for generations to come. By fighting for and winning passage of the bill, President Obama took a huge political risk. But his leadership on this issue will help provide millions of Americans with better access to more affordable health care.

The debate surrounding the health care bill was at its best moments informative and highlighted some of the very real problems that our broken health care system has created.  At its worst, the debate was confusing and needlessly divisive.  Opponents of the bill often resorted to gross exaggeration to derail efforts to pass it.  Some used the health care debate as a proxy in an effort to undermine President Obama.

But the truth behind the bill is really far more mundane than either side admits.

The bill, called the Health Care Reconciliation Act of 2010, achieved many elusive goals that reformers had sought for decades.  While the new law will not provide coverage for every American, it will extend coverage to 32 million of the uninsured. It will also help slow the rapid rise in health care costs, and even more importantly will put the brake on some of the worst abuses of health insurance companies. No longer will insurance companies be able to make
unreasonably high increases in medical premiums, place caps on health care benefits, or deny coverage to those with pre-existing or chronic conditions. These are important reforms that will benefit all of us.

The bill is not a government takeover of the health care system.  And it will not raise the deficit.  The reason? While the bill does not ask employers to do nearly enough to meet their responsibility to provide adequate health care for employees, it is mostly financed fairly. Expanded coverage is provided through cost savings on certain aspects of Medicare and a progressive tax on the wealthy.

Overall, these improvements will bring us closer to long-term health security for working families.

The RWDSU praises President Obama and the U.S. Congress for making the right decision to support real health care reform.  And of course, this battle couldn't have been won without the support of union members across the country.  Working people rallied and made phone calls to members of Congress, we wrote letters and attended town hall meetings.  We countered the lies and distortions of the right-wing and helped get the truth out.  By standing together we made a
real difference for millions of working families.