Health care reforms put forward by U.S. President Barack Obama have passed constitutional scrutiny. In an anxiously awaited, bitterly divided 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the week before last that the bulk of the bill, put into law in 2010, can go into effect.
The decision upholds the most important piece of social legislation put forward in the United States for decades, but in a sad commentary on the static perspective of many Americans, the overwhelming majority of the commentaries and analyses have focused on the politics of the decision, rather than on its impact on health care in the country.
Experts and specialists have long called for reform of the U.S. health care system. President Bill Clinton tried to implement change in his first term in office nearly two decades ago, but that effort failed miserably. By the time Mr. Obama took office, the U.S. was spending 17.6 percent of its GDP on health care — more than any other developed country — an amount that had steadily risen from 12.4 percent in 1990.