Healthcare Reform-What Does it Mean for Me?

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past twelve months, you've probably heard a little something about the healthcare reform bill that's been tossed back and forth like a radioactive ping pong ball between President Obama, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Well, it appears that last night everyone seemed to suddenly get on the same page (yeah, right) and passed this monstrosity, giving it two of the three thumbs up it needs to become law. Of course, President Obama will sign it, I mean, he does consider this juicy little tidbit to be the defining moment of his presidential career. Funny. I thought it was the beerfest on the White House lawn with the racial cop and the offended professor, but I digress.
Anyway, with this thing a mere moment away from becoming law, what does it mean for the average joe? To be honest, I'm not sure I understand a lot of what's included in those 2000+ pages of political positioning, but I do know that one way or the other the way I see the doctor is going to change.

Okay, so the gist of what I read goes a little something like this (at least, according to Reuters):
1) Small businesses as defined by the federal government to mean any business that employs 100 people or less, will have to join a co-op of sorts and leverage the buying power of other small businesses in an effort to provide health insurance to their employees. One small note here-part time employees will now count against the employee totals where previously they did not.
2) Insurers will no longer be able to insert lifetime maximum benefits to coverage, meaning that you can rack up millions of dollars in treatments over your lifetime without worry that you will be denied benefits
3) Insurers will also no longer be able to prevent someone from being able to qualify for coverage based on a pre-existing condition. I haven't seen anything that prevents them from charging an astronomical rate, though.
4) Insurers will no longer be able to cancel insurance policies if you get sick, though once again, there is no mention of premium controls.
5) Most Americans will be required to purchase health insurance policy, whether they can afford it or not. If you can't afford one, it will be appointed to you by the federal government courtesy of subsidies. I haven't seen what the thresholds are for people to qualify for healthcare subsidies, but I would surmise to say that they will be on a sliding scale based on your income, leaving many middle class individuals wondering how to pay for that on top of everything else. Penalties will be levied against those who refuse.
6) Medicaid will be increased to cover low income families, including those without children.
7) Lastly, this bad boy comes at a cost of over $900 million dollars.

All of this, on the surface, looks like a good deal, at least all but #9. All Americans should have equal access to quality medical care. I've read the reports that say that we are the only western country that does not subscribe to universal healthcare. There are gaps and god knows I'm the last person on earth that thinks that the insurance companies should be in control of the healthcare system. Reform has been needed for quite some time.
Now, here's what I want to know. First of all, how on god's green earth are we going to pay for this? There have been mentions of addition an investment income tax to those that earn $200,000 or more, yet I fail to see how this will cover the entire expense. Rumors have been flying about Medicare cuts, but I thought the idea was to increase healthcare coverage, so that couldn't be right could it? I have also heard that a majority of the cost will be picked up by insurers and companies. But what I haven't heard is that there will be a restriction on passing through the costs to the consumer. I have seen no mention of requiring health insurers to keep premiums stable, meaning that it's simply going to be more expensive to get insurance, making the subsidies a wash. And what about the companies that can't afford to provide their employees with health insurance? It'll be a choice between paying stiff penalties or go out of business. How's that supposed to help the economy? Simply put, more people will be out of work and taking advantage of government assistance programs, overtaxing the already overtaxed system.

And what about the additional traffic through the healthcare system? You already have to wait anywhere from 2-6 hours or more in a hospital emergency room to be seen. What happens when you add an additional 32 million patients to that system? Instead of hours, the waiting times could be days. And what about the cost of care? Hospitals and other medical providers will have to hire additional employees, which they will have to pay and insure, to handle the load. Costs are going to skyrocket.

I'm not sure how you guys are feeling about this one, but I have to say that I am concerned. I agree that this is a historic moment and is long overdue, however, I'm not so sure that it's for the betterment of America as much as it is a career defining moment for President Obama. I, for one, hope that I am wrong...dead wrong about the direction we are headed, but I'm not so sure that I am. Thoughts??