Health care reform will have many benefits

The health care reform just passed by Congress is vilified by many, but after reading the bill, I don't understand why. In the first year, the bill will bar insurance companies from dropping people because they get sick, give a $250 rebate to seniors who fall into the Medicare prescription “doughnut hole,” and provide a tax credit for small businesses that add health coverage for workers.

To help bring down costs, the reform will create insurance “exchanges” so that insurance companies finally have to compete (they have been protected against antitrust laws for years) and make an advisory board to Medicare so that the best and most cost-effective practices are copied across the country.

Do people opposed to health care reform really want to allow insurance companies to drop people as soon as they get sick and to raise premiums as they please?

Philip Kaaret

Iowa City