Health-Care Reform

The Economist (2010). Presenting the bill: The stage is set for crucial vote on America’s health-care reform bill. Retrieved March 20, 2010 from: http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15748396&fsrc=rss

This article, published on The Economist Online website, discusses the upcoming House vote on the health-care reform bill. As of the time of writing this, the vote has not occurred but is scheduled for tomorrow. Based on the recent switches from the ‘no’ column to the ‘yes’ column, it appears that the Democrats will have the 216 votes they need to pass this bill; however, this key number seems to be fluid, so it’s not over until there is a vote. This article does not directly discuss business matters but this bill, if passed, will have a very large impact on the economy and will affect businesses in many ways, though it is hard to tell in what way because you hear two very different scenarios depending on which side of the isle you are listening to. The Democrats say that the bill is “the largest deficit reduction of any bill we have adopted in Congress since 1993”. All of the House Republicans are voting against it for various reason; one being they believe it will costs even more than the proposed $940 billion, over the next ten years, and they also believe that this is an overreaching government takeover of health care and that it will further put the U.S. in debt and will become more a burden than a panacea. This topic is important to managers because they need to be aware and take action when there is legislative action going on that will affect the economy and their business in a direct way. This is a very big piece of legislation, but even the ones that don’t make the daily news are important to be aware of and to take a stand for and against, when needed.