Healthcare reform has become the law of the land. This is a momentous, yet tumultuous time in America’s history. A great victory has been won but like all great victories, health care reform is controversial. The great majority of Republicans have sworn to roll back healthcare. The Democrats have a huge struggle on their hands, but they have history on their side. Katrina Swett, wife of former Congressman Dick Swett and current Democratic candidate for Congress visited the Dartmouth College Democrats on Monday, April 13th. She believes healthcare reform is just one of the many aspects of a decent society. Democrats fought hard to erect socially progressive programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Civil Rights Equality throughout the twentieth century. All of these reforms, now sacrosanct in our society, met fierce backlash when they were first introduced. However, just like it is hard to imagine a United States of America without a commitment to racial equality or Social Security today, it will be hard to imagine a world without a better health care system tomorrow.

The healthcare reform bill is not perfect. Some Democrats feel this reform hasn’t gone far enough. And of course the reform bill will face modifications and improvements in the future. However, healthcare reform is a big step in the right direction when it comes to addressing the wrongs of so many insurance company abuses or making health insurance affordable to millions of everyday Americans. Here is exactly what healthcare reform offers, in case anyone is confused. According to http://www.healthcare.BarackObama.com:
1) 5.6 million people with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied insurance. Starting this year, no child will be denied health insurance due to a pre-existing condition, and by 2014, discrimination against adults with pre-existing conditions will become a thing of the past.

2) Starting in 2014, tax credits for up to 29 million individuals will help pay for health insurance. Individuals and middle-class families who cannot get or afford health insurance through work will be eligible for tax credits that will provide affordable coverage through new health insurance exchanges.

3) 3.5 million small businesses that offer employees health coverage can receive tax cuts of up to 35 percent this year and up to 50 percent in 2014.

4) In 2007 medical expenses were the cause of 62% of all bankruptcies in the US. Healthcare reform will cap the annual-out-of-pocket spending on insurance in order to save 500,000 families from bankruptcy each year.

5) Most importantly, 48 million uninsured Americans will have the opportunity to purchase new, affordable insurance options. Young adults will now be covered by their parents’ insurance until age 26 instead of age 21 (something very important to many college students) and many Americans who were once denied healthcare or couldn’t afford healthcare can be covered, thanks to fairer insurance policies, tax credits and affordable health coverage at lower rates.

There’s definitely a lot of good in the healthcare bill. Yet despite this big step, there are many people who would just as much like to take an even bigger step backward. The new G.O.P slogan is “Repeal and Replace.” Another, less official slogan is “Fire Nancy Pelosi.” On the eve of the historic vote, tensions ran high. Immediately preceding the passage of healthcare reform, thousands of protestors descended on Capitol Hill. On Saturday, March 20th, House Democrats passing through the Longworth House office building were subjected to abusive and derogatory remarks and behavior. Members of the Tea Party spat on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), called Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) a faggot (in offensive lipsy screams no less) and called Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a former civil rights activist, a nigger.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) commented on the mob-like mentality of the day, saying “It was absolutely shocking to me … I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit-ins… And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus.” He later received an anonymous fax with a picture of a noose. The next day, a brick was thrown through the front office window of Rep. Louise Slaughter’s (D-NY) district office. On Sunday night, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) “in the heat and emotion of the debate” shouted “baby-killer” at conservative Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) on the House floor. Neugebauer later claimed he was referring to the healthcare bill and not Stupak. That weekend a number of calls for President Obama’s assassination appeared on Twitter, Facebook and signs carried by Tea Party protestors. Death threats have been sent out to Democratic congress people, threatening to harm them and their families.

Frankly, having to resort to epithets and death threats only illustrates how very desperate Republicans are. Swett is also alarmed at the direction political rhetoric is taking. Vitriolic language steeped in extreme Republican ideology is not healthy for the overall body politic. This hyperactive hate towards healthcare reform does not produce an environment people would like to live in, much less discuss the issues in. The Republican Party and the Tea Party seem to want to keep their base whipped up with enough fear, hatred and paranoia to carry them over to November’s primaries. Threatening behavior is conducive neither to compromise nor to intellectual debate. However, while the Republicans are involved in an emotional, vengeful discourse against what Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky calls a “raft of sweetheart deals that were struck behind closed doors,” Democrats continue the fight for more accessible healthcare in a cool and collected manner.

Democrats need to believe in and continue fighting for healthcare. The battle isn’t over. In fact, it’s just begun. Throughout the blogosphere and news cycle a number of dark and gloomy predictions have been voiced over the Democrats’ future. One commentator believes that by throwing in his lot with House Speaker Pelosi and by resisting smaller reforms, President Obama has opened a Pandora’s box. Not only has he widened the gaping hole of the great partisan divide, but he has sharpened the Republican argument against him. Before, the Republicans were saying “no” just to get by. Their party had no real rallying point. After their tremendous loss in 2008, the Republicans were back at the drawing board, trying to revitalize and re-center the party with women and youth. Some even said the party was dead; now the Republicans have found their calling card. They hope everyone will look at the messy, drawn-out journey to healthcare and wonder how this perversion of democracy hacked together by a weak majority with socialist leanings ever became law. In contrast, a few disappointed liberals think that letting healthcare reform fail and then blaming “the party of no” for it would have been a better way to save face. Many in this apocalyptic camp, right and left alike, think that in betraying pro-choice (the President signed an executive order to cut funding for non-rape, non-incestuous abortion in the healthcare bill in order to please Stupak and other conservative Democrats), and in throwing the public option under the bus, only to still enrage the right, President Obama will pay in the ballot box, come 2012.

Yet to succumb to pessimism is to look at only one side of the coin. On the other hand, the Republican Party’s groundless, and stubborn behavior united The Left behind a call to action. Healthcare reform was long overdue. As candidate Swett put it, it was embarrassing to see that the US had fallen behind every other developed nation when it came to healthcare. The long ideological battle allowed President Obama to find his inner FDR and LBJ. The nation got to see President Obama use not his “celebrity status” but the wits and calm demeanor we elected him for. He was also fortunate to have powerful and determined allies such as Pelosi and Congressman Reid. After Brown won Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts, many liberals were ready to throw in the towel and run away from healthcare reform. But Obama and Pelosi were not fazed by the loss of the coveted majority. They bounced back. During last summer’s raucous town hall meetings, as his approval ratings were falling and his fresh-out-of-the-election political capital was dwindling, many said that President Obama’s campaign would live or die with healthcare reform. And healthcare reform lived. President Obama won.

By pushing healthcare reform through Congress, no one can hit President Obama with the “did-nothing” label. Come this fall, the Democrats can come before the people with a promise fulfilled. The elderly, the freelancers, the uninsured, the college students, the single moms, and the working class parents cannot forget what President Obama has just done for them. President Obama will be forever remembered for bringing healthcare reform to pass. As Paul Begala put it, “When David Obey swung that gavel—the same gavel used to hammer home Medicare—and struck it on that historic rostrum, it made a joyful noise unto the Lord. And I for one said, ‘Hallelujah.’”

The aftermath of healthcare reform will be rough but it is certainly not hopeless. The Democrats need to continue to believe that they have done something great for this country, even in the face of severe criticism. Eventually, everyone will come to realize that there is no going back; we can only move forward. Healthcare reform is here to stay.