President Barack Obama signed H.R. 3590, the largest overhaul to the nation’s health care system in nearly a half-century into law this morning in a crowded ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Read a copy of the new law here.
A separate reconciliation bill, containing amendments to the overhaul, now goes to the Senate, where it needs a simple majority to become law. If anything is changed in the reconciliation bill, it would have to go back for another vote in the House before heading to the President’s desk. The Senate has not started the debate of this bill but is expected to do so this week. The NCMS will continue to update this blog and our Health System Reform page with new information as it becomes available.
at 9:45 am
There are so many missing issues in this new bill, but just for this purpose, I am wondering about the future of medical education. Nothing about the high costs of schooling and training, although I would have to suspect that there will be decreased allotments for residency slots in hospitals, adding to the burden of costs for medical education. Since most not-for-profits will not do as well under the new law (cf. The Advisory Board) this will make teaching less desirable.
And nothing about expansion of residency slots to accomodate the increased physician workforce needed to provide all the services to the new influx of ‘insured’ patients.