This isn't over

With the Senate passing the House’s bill with fixes to the health care reform package, and the House ready to take it up tonight (and likely pass it tonight as well), it almost feels like this long, national nightmare is over.

It’s not. Not by a long shot.

You see, while this health care bill does not take over one-sixth of the economy, as its critics may speciously claim, it is gigantic, and it does touch a great number of sections of the U.S. budget. If you remember your civics correctly, you\’ll note that the Congress votes on budgets at least once a year. That means, clearly, that every part of this health care bill, nay, law is subject to the whims of future Congresses. To think that every piece will remain intact in its original form until 2018, when the last parts of it take effect, is nonsensical. Of course, future compromises will occur, parts may end up redacted, and other parts may end up stronger. Will the excise tax actually kick in in 2018? That will be up to that Congress to decide. Will a public option come back to the table? It could at any time, although probably only if the Democrats open a large majority again, which is unlikely anytime soon.

This law will need to be defended every year. Hopefully, it can be strengthened over time. Hopefully, it can be made better. Hopefully, it not be destroyed over countless efforts to compromise, to water down, or (altogether unlikely) repeal. Because this is important.

Now, I do have a dog in this race. My mother is self-employed and does suffer from a pre-existing condition. In her state, there is only one health insurance company, and she’s been denied. With this bill, she can not only finally be protected in case something befalls her, but the policy will be affordable, and she’ll be eligible for subsidies.

In the words of a man who’s certainly turned phrases more eloquently—but never as honestly—, “This is a big fucking deal.”

So, in the words of another man who could turn a phrase better than most, alive or passed on, this can be said, but this time with the sense of cautious victory: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”