Health care, HBCU funding bill signed

Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama put his signature on a bill that made sweeping changes to the nation’s health care system and pumped millions into historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

“Our presence here today is remarkable and improbable,” the president said. “With all the punditry, all of the lobbying, all of the game-playing that passes for governing in Washington, it’s been easy at times to doubt our ability to do such a big thing, such a complicated thing; to wonder if there are limits to what we, as a people, can still achieve. It’s easy to succumb to the sense of cynicism about what’s possible in this country.”

The Affordable Health Care for America Act mandates a long list of reforms, which include: outlawing the practice of denying health insurance to children with pre-existing conditions, permitting young people to remain on their parents’ insurance policy, banning insurance companies from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, eliminating lifetime caps on coverage, and creating temporarily subsidized affordable insurance pools for men and women with pre-existing conditions.

“If you like your current insurance, you will keep your current insurance,” Obama added. “No government takeover; nobody is changing what you’ve got if you’re happy with it. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. In fact, more people will keep their doctors because your coverage will be more secure and more stable than it was before I signed this legislation.”

The health reform act also included Obama’s new spending package for HBCUs. It includes a boost in Title III money, Strengthening HBCUs program, Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institution program, HBCU Capital Financing Program, and other grants.