Millions Unaffected By Health Reform

If passed, health-care reform may be the most sweeping social legislation in at least four decades, but for tens of millions of Americans, life under the proposed law may seem little different. President Obama pledged during his push for health-care reform that under any plan that passed, "If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan" and many of the 160 million workers who get insurance through their employer will likely do just that. Many of the bill's chief components—including an individual mandate to buy health insurance, a ban on barring those with pre-existing conditions from obtaining coverage, and subsidies for the uninsured to get coverage through a newly created exchange—will only be noticed by the uninsured and many of its cost-cutting components will likely be felt indirectly over an extended period of time. The bill nevertheless provides for increased security, as employees who lose their job would now have a regulated market to turn to find health insurance and government aid to help them pay for it.