The long debated and highly controversial 940 billion dollar Health Care bill passed by a margin of 219-212 last month.

The highlights of this bill are:

• It will be illegal for insurance companies to deny or cancel coverage to someone with a pre-existing condition or because of their gender or race. Also, their will be a program called the ‘high-risk insurance pool’.  This is for the people that have a pre-existing condition and have been out of insurance for 6 months or more, and can receive subsides, or options from the government, “the premiums for this pool will be the same as would be charged for a standard population of people with varying risks. Maximum out-of-pocket cost sharing for enrollees will be $5,950 for individuals and $11,900 for families, per year,” said Peter Grier of The Christian Science Monitor.

• For the unemployed, their will be state-run exchanges. This will be a cheaper form of insurance, and will be a temporary option for many people while they shop for a better, affordable health care plan in the future.

• For businesses: With 50 or more employees, coverage would be required, or the business would be fined by higher taxes. If the business doesn’t offer coverage, then they would be required to help their lower-income workers to go to the state-run exchanges and help their employees.  “…small businesses now will be able to afford health insurance and those already offering the benefit will save money….small businesses will be able to obtain health insurance through the newly created health insurance exchange that will leverage very large numbers of people in a pool to drive down premiums of the insurance companies competing for their business,” said Frank Knapp JR. of The State.

• Everyone will be required to purchase health insurance, and will be fined through taxes and if the individual chooses not to purchase health insurance. “An insurance less person would have to pony up whichever is greater: $695 for each uninsured family member, up to a maximum of $2,085; or 2.5 percent of household income. There are exceptions. Certain people with religious objections would not have to get health insurance. Nor would American Indians, illegal immigrants, or people in prison,” Peter Grier of The Christian Science Monitor.

These changes will take effect by 2014.

President Barack Obama’s stance on health care, “Well, I think it should be a right for every American. In a country as wealthy as ours, for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills–for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.”

Chapin High School’s teachers and students also have strong opinions about this bill.

Senior Ashton Schumpert agrees with some of the policies, however believes that this new Health Care bill is violating what our country was founded upon, “To force Americans to pay for health care is infringing on their personal rights as American citizens and completely undermines the key principles of American Federalism. Our country was founded on the concepts of capitalism and free enterprise.”

Senior Joe Maley believes along the same lines, “I do acknowledge that the current healthcare system in America is severely broken but forcing everyone to buy healthcare is ridiculous. In the bigger picture, this bill opens the door for the government to become more intrusive and force more payments on us. I largely agree with Benjamin Franklin in that, “Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.”

However, not everybody feels that way.

Mrs. Betty Boone, a Social Studies teacher, says, “Recently I have been through two cancers and with that, I still had to make decisions whether or not I should pay for it.  I don’t think people should have to make decisions on that because their income. We live in the richest nation of the world, and at minimum health care should be given regardless of their situation. I think it’s wrong that low income people and children are not able to get health care because of price.”

Senior Sean McCawley is upset because the public option did not get in the bill. He said, “The new health care bill is clearly going to extend health care to millions of people that don’t have, but I believe that the best one that could of come out would have been the public option it would of allowed for competitive and lower price [insurance companies].”