One step closer to health reform

Congratulations to Speaker Pelosi, President Obama, the House leadership and House Democrats for an historic achievement in passing bipartisan legislation to reform health care and doing it with votes to spare.

The bill isn’t perfect. The abortion funding restrictions inserted at the last minute are much to severe and an insult to American women. The public option is much weaker than it needs to be. Hopefully both of these weaknesses and others can be corrected at a later date. For now, Americans should celebrate. It has taken more than 100 years but we are finally moving in the direction of providing affordable health insurance to all Americans, not just seniors. The House bill will also lower the deficit and begin to bend the health insurance cost curve if only a little.

Now on to the Senate. Senator Reid has said he hopes to bring the Senate Health reform bill to the floor before Thanksgiving. If he can, there is hope that President Obama might be able to sign health reform into law by the end of the year.