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Mixed reactions towards U.S. health care reform bill

2010-03-24 11:09 BJT

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Claiming a historic triumph that could define his presidency, U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a nearly 1-trillion-U.S.-dollar health care reform bill, on track to bring the most profound changes to the nation's social security system in more than four decades.

The core of the massive law is the extension of health care coverage to 32 million who now lack it, subsidies for people who can't afford coverage on their own, consumer-friendly rules clamped on insurers, tax breaks, and marketplaces to shop for health plans.

However, the sweeping bill has also sparked opposition, anxieties as well controversies among different groups in the United States.

14 state attorneys general suing to overturn the bill

Fourteen U.S. states filed lawsuits in federal court seven minutes after the bill was signed, claiming the law violates the constitution.

The lawsuit underscores the divisiveness of the issue and the political rancor that has surrounded it.

The lawsuit, filed in Pensacola, asks a judge to declare the bill unconstitutional because "the Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage."

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley opposed the law, saying that his state will have to cut education and other programs to make up for increased Medicaid costs under the overhaul.

"This isn't about attorneys general trying to break into the realm of telling what needs to happen with health care reform," he said. "This is attorneys general saying you went too far with unfunded federal mandates. You exceeded your power under the Constitution."

Mixed reactions from small business

Obama said small businesses will be big winners under health care reform, but some entrepreneurs have mixed reactions towards the bill, with anxiety rising.

In Utah, several local business owners said that they are hopeful the changes will help them, but they are taking a bit of a wait-and-see approach.

Marci Rasmussen, owner of a small business Especially for You, has spent 20 of the last 23 years uninsured.

"I took the chance that I needed to take to survive, to stay in business and keep my employees, and get my son in college," she said.

Some of her workers, and her husband, have pre-existing conditions, so premiums for her company could have been as high as 6,500 dollars a month. In a nail-biting move, they went without, paying out of pocket instead.

Now that health care reform has passed, Marci and her family feel relieved.

The health reform also stirs anxiety. The key, double-edge provision worrying small businesses is the requirement that everyone be insured, or else pay a fine.

"Businesses like mine, we work hard for our money, and sometimes it's hard to come by," said Mark Woodward, owner of Lorenz Fine Cutlery. "It's going to be tough if we're forced into paying for insurance for our employees."