At his keynote address back in 2009 at Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh, President Bill Clinton made a prediction:

I don't care how low [the insurance companies] drive support for [health reform] with misinformation, the minute the President signs a health reform bill approval will go up because Americans are inherently optimistic.

Yesterday, President Obama signed the health reform bill into law. Today, President Clinton is rapidly being proved right.

A new poll from Gallup/USA Today shows that health reform is already becoming popular in America:

As the days pass, I expect those numbers will continue to climb. Bill Clinton does, too, as he continued in his keynote:

Within a year, when all those bad things they say are going to happen don't happen and the good things do begin to happen, approval will explode.

Within the next six months, a large number of American people will already see the effects of health reform:

• Insurance companies will be barred from dropping coverage if you're sick, and lifetime and annual benefit caps will be restricted (to be banned fully in 2014)
• Young people will be able to stay on their parents' insurance coverage until they are 26, whereas most insurance companies drop dependent coverage now at the age of 19 or after completion of college.
• Seniors will get $250 towards the donut hole coverage gap
• Small businesses will be able to deduct 35% of the cost of health care for their employees
• And those with pre-existing conditions will be able to finally get insurance through a temporary high-risk pool run by the government

With politically important groups like young people, small business, and seniors seeing real benefits from health reform before the November elections, Bill Clinton will be proven prescient once again.

As President Clinton said, America is going to like health reform, and once they get their hands on the benefits, they're going to fight to keep it and make it better in the future.

NEWS

Obama Signs Health Care Overhaul Bill, With a Flourish - New York Times

With the strokes of 20 pens, President Obama signed his landmark health care overhaul — the most expansive social legislation enacted in decades — into law on Tuesday, saying it enshrines “the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”

Poll show health care plan gains favor - USA Today

More Americans now favor than oppose the health care overhaul that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — a notable turnaround from surveys before the vote that showed a plurality against the legislation.

Senate Begins Debate on Health-Care Bill - Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Senate began debate Tuesday on legislation combining the last pieces to the Democratic overhaul of the health-care system and a shake-up to the student-loan industry, commencing what promises to be a contentious few days.

Ted Kennedy is celebrated for his longtime support of health-care reform - Washington Post

While President Obama gathered with lawmakers for a bill-signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday afternoon, dozens of others came to commemorate health-care legislation here, on a quiet hillside in Section 45 of Arlington National Cemetery.

Justice Department readies health care bill defense - Politico

The Justice Department is preparing to defend the health care reform legislation signed by President Barack Obama today against a flurry of lawsuits challenging its constitutionality, department officials said. In fact, according to a DOJ spokeswoman, government lawyers were gearing up for the legal battle even before the bill became law.

GOP healthcare protest breaks-up Senate committee business - The Hill

Senate Republicans protesting healthcare reform forced the cancellation of several scheduled committee hearings on Tuesday.

Democrat ‘no’ votes on healthcare legislation anger labor unions - The Hill

Unions are likely to rescind their backing of labor-friendly lawmakers who voted against the healthcare bill and may support challengers.

Hold pickle? Maybe, but not the calorie count under new law - Washington Post

That Caesar salad you’re about to eat? It’s 800 calories, and that’s without the croutons. The fettuccine alfredo? A whopping 1,220 calories. You may choose to ignore the numbers, but soon it’s going to be tough to deny you saw them.

All around the country, people are cheering the passage of health reform and thanking Representatives in the House for voting YES!

In Iowa delivering cakes to Congressmen Braley and Loebsack:

In Maine, thanking Representatives Pingree and Michaud:

In New Mexico, thanking Representative Heinrich:

In New York:

And in Illinois:

With more to come…

The President signed the Senate health care bill into law at noon today.

This year, over 4 million small businesses will get tax credits worth up to 35% of their health care costs. This year, seniors will get $250 towards closing their coverage donut hole. This year, young Americans will be able to stay on their parent's insurance plan until they are 26. This year, lifetime caps on benefits will be a thing of the past. And this year, the people with pre-existing conditions who can't get health care now at any price will be able to buy into high-risk pools until the exchanges are set up in 2014.

But we are not done. Right after the House passed the health care bill on Sunday, they passed a package of improvements that now head to the Senate for an up-or-down vote.

The fixes heading to the Senate are mostly focused on making health care affordable to middle class families.

First, the package vastly improves the excise tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans, raising the threshold at which a plan will be affected to $10,200 for individual plans and $27,500 for family coverage. It also delays the implementation of the tax until 2018. As a result, the burden on middle tax families will be dramatically reduced.

To make up for the loss in revenue, the fixes broaden the Medicare payroll tax on on rich investors, taxing net investment income for those who make more than $250,000 per year.

And second, the package increases the subsidies available in the exchanges for middle class families and lowers their cost sharing. With the package, a lower percentage of a family's income will be spent on health care costs - both premiums and out of pocket.

And there are more provisions in the package that would help broad swaths of the American public:

• The package fully closes the donut hole for seniors over time
• It freezes Medicare Advantage overpayments to private insurers and requires private insurers to pay 85% of money in to benefits in Medicare Advantage, to match the levels for all insurance plans in the health care bill
• It strikes the deals Senators like Ben Nelson received and replaces them with increased Medicaid funding to all states
• And it funds student loans for millions of young Americans

The Senate, after a string of favorable parliamentary rulings, is expected to take up the improvements under budget reconciliation rules today, with the goal of a final vote at the end of this week before the Easter recess.

NEWS

Obama to Sign Health Care Reform Into Law Tuesday Morning - Roll Call

President Barack Obama will sign health care reform into law late Tuesday morning and all lawmakers who supported the bill are invited to attend the ceremony, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

What does the health care bill mean to me? - Washington Post

The health-care overhaul will change the way millions of Americans get health insurance and require nearly everyone to have health insurance or face penalties. A number of factors - including income, age, location and family size - will determine how it specifically impacts your life. This tool looks at what it could mean for your health coverage and taxes based on your income, family size and current insurance status.

Senate Democrats get favorable ruling - Politico

A ruling by Senate parliamentarian Alan Frumin handed Democrats a major victory Monday night, beating back a GOP push to declare a key tax proposal in the health care bill out of order.

First wave of health-care changes will target insurers with new rules - Washington Post

In affixing his signature Tuesday to comprehensive health-care legislation, President Obama will set in motion a fundamental shift across a sprawling industry, from insurers who will face an expanding list of restrictions to hospitals and doctors confronted with new incentives to practice more-efficient care.

'Fix-it' bill: Final fight on health care front - USA Today

Senate Democrats vowed to start debate today on a series of changes to President Obama's landmark health care legislation, launching the final battle in the year-long effort to revamp the nation's health insurance system.

Unions irked at Space over health care 'no' vote - Newark Advocate

Two unions representing tens of thousands of Ohio workers said Monday they would no longer support the state's only Democratic congressman to oppose President Barack Obama's health care bill.

Nelson to oppose reconciliation package, cites student lending - The Hill

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Monday he would vote against a reconciliation package that included changes to healthcare reform and student lending legislation.

Republicans Face Drawbacks of United Stand on Health Bill - New York Times

Passage of the health care legislation challenges the heart of the Republicans’ strategy this year: To present a unified opposition to big Democratic ideas, in this case expressed in a stream of bristling anger and occasional mischaracterizations of what the bill would do.

Health reform passed last night with a vote in the House of Representatives of 219-212. I'll have a lot to say about what's in the bill and what the reconciliation package going to the Senate does to make it better, but for now, some perspective is in order.

Two quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sum up this rapidly closing episode of American history. First, Dr. King succinctly illustrates why health reform was and still is a moral imperative:

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."

Health care is an issue taken up by advocates of the public interest everywhere because of this simple and powerful fact. Injustice in health care is an injustice that flies directly in the face of the ideals this country was founded on. As Speaker Pelosi remarked last night, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness is what pushes us all to work for health reform. Making America live up to its ideals is what reform is all about.

A second quote by Dr. King sums up for me what the vote last night did to fix this inequality:

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

The health care bill passed last night bends that moral arc towards justice in this country.

There is more work to do - indeed, there may always be more work to do - to rub out the inequality that exists in health care in America. But there is no question today that America has made determined progress towards a more just society, and a more perfect Union.

Tomorrow, we resume the fight to pass the final health reform provisions through the Senate on an up or down vote. But today, I'm thinking about the progress we've made and the progress we have yet to accomplish.

You can watch tonight's debate and votes live on cspan.org

NEWS

Democrats steam toward Sunday vote - Politico

The Democrats’ yearlong health reform push picked up unmistakable momentum Thursday as the votes began to fall into place for a history-making roll call Sunday that could achieve the party’s decadeslong goal of expanding health care.

AFL-CIO Urges House to Approve Health Care Bill - Roll Call

The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, is the latest lobbying heavyweight to formally give its seal of approval to Democrats’ $940 billion health care reform legislation, urging House Members on Thursday to vote for the measure.

Senate Democrats Building Broad Message Campaign - Roll Call

Senate Democrats are planning an aggressive message campaign between now and November focusing on jobs, national security, the immediate impact of health care reform and their party’s efforts to “take on Wall Street.”

Democrats Say Health Bill Will Pay for Itself in the Long Run - New York Times

House Democrats initiated a 72-hour countdown Thursday on their yearlong effort to overhaul the health care system, unveiling a nearly final version of the legislation that promptly won additional support with a promise that the bill would more than pay for itself over the next decade.

Eric Cantor’s Office Endorses Mythical ‘New England Journal of Medicine Report’ - Washington Independent

Dayspring doesn’t mis-attribute the study to the New England Journal of Medicine, but I think Peter Lipson at Forbes does a good job unspooling the unscientific Medicus poll that’s at issue here.

Nine Major Changes In The Democrats' New Health Reform Bill - Kaiser Health News

In their attempt to pass a sweeping health care overhaul this weekend, House Democrats are pushing a package of legislative fixes to lure undecided or opposed members of their party to the "yes" category.

All around the country, the people are coming out and saying YES to health reform in advance of the vote in the House expected this weekend.

In Nebraska, they're out in force:

In Illinois, Representative Melissa Bean is getting the message outside her offices:

They're getting it out in Grand Rapids, MI, too:

In Ohio outside Representative Mary Jo Kilroy's offices, we're getting the message out and outnumbering teabaggers:

In Pennsylvania in front of Representative Carney's office, they're getting out the message:

And in Erie, PA, Representative Dahlkemper is hearing it:

In Nevada, Congresswoman Titus is getting the message:

In California, Representative Costa is hearing it:

In Wisconsin, they're getting out the message:

In Pottsville, Pennsylvania, they're getting the message out in front of Representative Holden's office:

In Iowa, Representative Boswell is hearing it:

And in Aliquippa, PA, Representative Altmire is hearing it:

And online, the people are calling their Representatives for Susan, who had to fight cancer and her insurance company because Blue Cross's catastrophic coverage didn't think cancer was catastrophic:

It's come down to yes or no. The people say yes. Click here to call your Representative and say yes, too.

Back in 2007, the nation's largest health insurer, WellPoint, pledged to spend $30 million over three years as part of a "comprehensive plan to help address the growing ranks of the uninsured."

Three years later, they've only spent $6.2 million on their "comprehensive plan:"

In 2007, just as Democrats took control of Congress, WellPoint pledged that its charitable foundation would spend $30 million over three years as part of a "comprehensive plan to help address the growing ranks of the uninsured."

But according to tax filings, company promotional material and former executives familiar with the initiative, WellPoint never came close to fulfilling that pledge. A company spokeswoman disputed that Wednesday.

However, WellPoint's public records indicate that from 2007 to 2009 the foundation gave less than $6.2 million in grants targeted specifically at helping uninsured Americans get access to coverage and care — barely one-fifth of what was promised and just 11% of the charity's total giving over the last three years.

"It was just not something that the company really wanted to do," said one former executive, who, like others interviewed for this story, asked not to be identified out of concern that discussing WellPoint could have adverse career consequences. "So it went by the wayside."

Let's put this all in perspective.

Over the three years from 2007-2009, WellPoint made $10 billion in profit, or $9 million per day, more than WellPoint has currently contributed to this "comprehensive plan," even though a week of profits would have covered the full amount they pledged.

Their CEO pay for 2007 and 2008 (2009 numbers are not available yet) was $28.5 million, just about the amount of their promise. In 2008, Angela Braley, WellPoint's CEO, made $9.8 million, more than WellPoint actually spent on this "comprehensive plan" to date.

Over the past three years, WellPoint has bought back $12.1 billion dollars worth of its own stock, a technique that jacks up a stock's price and is used to reward Wall Street investors. Just .2% of the money they spent rewarding Wall Street would have fulfilled their promise.

And, let's not forget, this is the same WellPoint that jacked up rates 39% in California through its subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, all the while cutting millions from its rolls.

This is WellPoint's business model - reward Wall Street at the expense of customers by denying care and carving out benefit designs that save them money by making you pay more. It's also the business model health reform - which according to the latest CBO numbers [pdf] will cover 95% of the population - is designed to end.