SiouxLand

It's not the Second Coming and it's certainly not the Apolcalypse -- about the most dramatic thing I can say about the health insurance reform passed by the House is that it's reasonably good news for most of us.

Reasonably good because it offers a modicum of security and stability for everyone. Virtually everyone will be able to qualify for insurance, afford insurance and keep their insurance ... and that insurance will be required to pay the expenses policyholders paid to have covered.

To make that work, there is a requirement that everyone carry health insurance -- a requirement that evokes all sorts of squeals from the folks otherwise touting "individual responsibility" as the supreme virtue. I don't get that. For individuals who already pay for health insurance or who would be happy and relieved to pay for health insurance if it were possible for them to buy it, this is hardly a burden, it's what responsible individuals do already. What the tea bagger set seems to be advocating is the right or the individually irresponsible to sponge off the rest of us -- by not paying for their health insurance so when they get kicked in the head by a horse we all pick up the tab for their emergency room visit, in-patient care and rehabilitation. Anybody who's had a run-into with an uninsured driver will know what I'm thinking of -- and if requiring all auto-owners to carry insurance is good and responsible business -- doesn't applying the same standard to every body-owner make equal sense?

No, the bill isn't perfect. Since Eden, nothing ever is. But for most of us, it's a whole lot better than what we had Saturday. So let's give it two-cheers and keep moving on.