Under the law, more than $10 billion will go to the National Institutes of Health for research into cancer, heart disease and other illnesses. The legislation commits $1 billion to support government efforts to study the comparative effectiveness of medical procedures, pharmaceutical and devices.

Experts say the stimulus bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs and will cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers.

All these improvements have been mentioned before as Obama’s main promises regarding health care.

 

Those who oppose the stimulus bill argue the change will put the government in the middle of the relationship between doctors and patients. They disagree with the idea of a National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, an organization which should monitor treatments and make sure that doctors are prescribing the treatment which is considered the most appropriate and cost effective from the federal government’s point of view. When a similar plan created by Hilary Clinton was adopted during her husband’s administration, Americans reached the conclusion that the measure which allowed the federal government to make decisions about health and medical needs meant “rationed care.”

 

Last week, Obama signed a legislation called expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, allowing 4 million additional children to be eligible for the government-provided health insurance program.