But whatever way you look at it, I hope people give it enough time to see its benefits and learn all that it has to offer, beyond the few obvious benefits for everyone.

Sure, it’s great insurance companies can no longer drop a patient because they get sick or reject a potential customer because he or she has a pre-existing condition. The bill also will help insure 32 million uninsured Americans, not to mention ensuring coverage for children under their parents’ plans until they’re 26 years old. But there’s so much more.

I understand the whole socialism view of universal health care, and although the new plan isn’t quite universal coverage, I’m okay with it. We’re the only industrialized country in the world without universal health care. America’s health care cost is double that what other countries pay. And while those who can afford health care get excellent service, there still is a large chunk left without medical coverage.

I don’t have a problem with paying extra taxes to ensure the health and happiness of the nation’s population. After all, we pay for firefighters and police, so why not hospitals? I don’t feel okay being covered while others suffer with poor health. Think about how the country’s relatively low life expectancy might jump with this coverage.

Higher-income families seem to dislike the idea of paying for the lazy and poor. But a lot of good, hardworking people end up with hardships. Sure, there are lazy people getting by, but a lot of people just can’t catch breaks, especially in this economic climate. A lot of people — even the “rich” — are one paycheck from disaster and don’t even know it. This is just a way to ensure when that happens, people still are covered.

Without some sort of reform, with the cost of the current Medicare and Medicaid plans, the country most likely would be bankrupt in less than 20 years. Although the new plan only will cut the nation’s budget deficit a little, it still will put a ding in the ever growing debt.

I’m not old, and I wasn’t around when it was enacted, but it might have been more beneficial to the country had Medicare not been passed all those years ago. Without the federal money for elderly people to pay for medical costs, most people wouldn’t have been able to retire. More people would have been up in arms over health care and a solution similar to the reform signed Tuesday might have been struck years ago.

And the passing of the reform this time around hinged on an executive order banning federal funding for abortions. I’m not for abortion as of now, but everyone should have the right to choose if the situation presents itself. No matter the person who has the procedure, it is one of the toughest decisions that person will face and something they will have on their conscience throughout life. It’s a case-by-case situation, such as many other procedures, and I wouldn’t have minded tax dollars going toward the practice. America leads developed countries in abortions per 1,000 women, despite being the only one without universal health care and the procedure being legal in the other countries, such as Japan, Germany, Canada and Great Britain.

With time, I’m sure this plan, though lacking what many of the other countries’ plans include, such as free medical care and pharmaceuticals for every citizen, will prove to reduce abortions. It will give girls assurance they can have affordable medical care for their baby and allow girls easier access to contraceptives. Reducing abortions only is one of the benefits that only time will tell if the plan is working.

Obama needs to stay on track and make sure Americans know the benefits of the program and why it was good for the country to have the plan pass. Many conservatives say the majority of the country isn’t behind the bill. I haven’t talked to many people who dislike it. Republicans accused Democrats of “totalitarian tactics,” which basically was just the American voting process.

Time most likely will show the country the plan has great upside, and America will likely be in a better place. In the end, Obama did something presidents for a hundred years haven’t been able to do.

Pat Evans is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at evanspa7@msu.edu.