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This marks the completion of Week 22 of serious training and the distance has really been racking up. Only 7 more weeks to go…

500,000,000 bottles of water per WEEK in the USA alone. Yikes!

In the last few days there have been a few decent Q&A’s from the various news outlets to put healthcare reform into practical terms.

Here’s one from CNN today that was particularly good.

Question: Is there anything in the bill about rationing health care?
Answer: No one is using the term “rationing” as part of the bill. But there is a term called comparative effectiveness. And that’s this idea that we figure out what works in medicine and make sure to pay for those things. This also means that there are a lot of things being done right now where there’s not scientific proof that it works and maybe those things won’t get paid any more. Some people call that rationing. Other people say, look, rationing exists under the current system. It’s just that the insurance companies are essentially rationing by denying payment or dropping people off their coverage.

Now that the bill has actually passed it’s worth each of us taking more time to understand what specifically is in it and how it affects you and your family. Hopefully the testosterone levels and political grand standing will subside long enough to get a real handle on the details.

Our friend Jim has a great synopsis over at Bargaineering explaining what will change and when now that the bill has passed. The full article is worth a read but here are a few of my favorite parts, all of which go into effect in 2010 or 2011.

• Insurance companies will be barred from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Lifetime coverage limits will be eliminated and annual limits are to be restricted.
• Insurers will be barred from excluding children for coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
• Young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ health plans until the age of 26.
• A tax credit becomes available for some small businesses to help provide coverage for workers.
• Medicare beneficiaries will be able to get a free annual wellness visit and personalized prevention plan service. New health plans will be required to cover preventive services with little or no cost to patients.

If you’ve had a hard time keeping up with all the Healthcare debate or have lost interest along the way like I have, here is a nice quick summary from BusinessWeek on what is currently being proposed:

Insurers would no longer be able to reject new customers with pre-existing medical conditions; new restrictions would be placed on their ability to set premiums. Patients would have greater access to preventive care and young adults would be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26.

See the full article for details on how the bill addresses individual mandates, expanding coverage, coverage for seniors, taxes, industry fees, employer mandates, abortion, and even a revamp to student loans.

Also, here’s Ezra Klein commenting on the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s review which found the bill will actually save money:

You also get the single most ambitious effort the government has ever made to control costs in the health-care sector. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill cuts deficits by $130 billion in the first 10 years.

This was a hard bill to write. Pairing the largest coverage increase since the Great Society with the most aggressive cost-control effort isn’t easy. And since the cost controls are complicated, while the coverage increase is straightforward, many people don’t believe that the Democrats have done it. But to a degree unmatched in recent legislative history, they have.

Coverage for 32 million that don’t currently have it plus better protections for those of us that already do while saving $130 billion in the process sounds like a win-win-win to me.

Let’s get this done people.