Take two aspirin...

Yesterday, President Obama signed the new health-care bill into law, but don't believe for an instant the battle is over.

For more than 100 years almost every president has tried to get some kind of legislation improving access to health care. Obama finally got it done -- but at a cost that may turn out to be a pyrrhic victory. A lot of Congressmen are going to be tossed out of office this November because of it.

Today, the health care industry consumes one in every six dollars of the nation's gross domestic product, so the legislation should have broad-reaching impacts.

We all know the health-care system in this county is broken. From prescription drugs to medical procedures, the costs are simply too high. Family after family are financially destroyed by the costs of getting ill. That shouldn't happen in a country as great as this one.

But this bill is horribly flawed. From its initial high concept, it has been rewritten by the lobbyists of the health-care industry whose influence over members of Congress is little short of disgraceful. It does not do what we wanted it to do -- control costs.

Even people who have health insurance today often do not see a doctor when they need it because just their "co-pay" and "deductible" share is beyond their financial means.

This bill does not, in our opinion, provide access to affordable health care for all Americans. Instead, in the version passed, it simply mandates that every American must obtain health care insurance -- whether they want it, need it, or can afford it. But, as health-care costs continue to skyrocket, it doesn't mean they can afford to actually use it.

Forget the numbers being thrown around by both sides of the argument as to what it will cost. Those numbers are nothing more than guesses, and they range from saving the government billions a year to costing taxpayers trillions. The ballpark in which those guesses range wouldn't fit in this universe.

Instead, focus on whether or not it will save you, personally, any money when (not if, but when) you get sick. Will the cost of prescription drugs go down? We don't see anything in the bill that will do that.

Will the cost of a stay in a hospital room overnight go down? Probably not (and right now, you can book a penthouse suite in a five-star hotel for less than an overnight stay in almost any hospital in the country).

That's where the bill fails to meet its promise. We just don't see where it will rein in costs.

There are some good points to the bill. Extending coverage to all children and preventing insurance companies from refusing to cover people who have pre-existing conditions, or canceling insurance once they get sick, are good ideas. But there are bad points as well, including the impact on small business costs and the fact that Americans are now ordered -- not allowed, but ordered -- to get health insurance, regardless as to whether they can afford it or want it.

Most of this bill won't take effect until 2014 -- after this fall's elections. That's plenty of time to modify it, tweak it, improve it -- or just flat repeal it and start over.

This fall's elections will invariably become a referendum on this piece of legislation. The party in power always loses some seats in off-year elections, but the question is always how much. We wouldn't be surprised if the victory of the Democrats this week turns into a disaster for them at the polls in November. But will that predicted political disaster do anything to fix the underlying problem of spiraling health-care costs, or will it just be an avenue to power for politicians?

This bill may not have been the best way to do it, but the debate this fall will hopefully focus on how to fix the health care system and control the spiraling costs. Hopefully, when the dust finally settles, we'll have something that actually works (but then we'd believe in the tooth fairy if it weren't for the high costs of dental care).

In the meantime, take two expensive aspirin and call the politicians on the carpet this November.

-- Kelly Everitt