Today's health care changes

This week Obama and Biden have finally come out swinging the megaphone in the midst of all the din (definition: "a loud, unpleasant, and prolonged noise") relentlessly produced by the Grand Old Tea Party.

The president and vice-president have been energetically putting the spotlight on the huge changes in health care taking effect today:

* Insurance companies can no longer exclude children because of pre-existing health conditions.

* Insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime limits on benefits.

* Insurance companies can no longer drop sick and costly customers after discovering technical mistakes on applications.

* Insurance companies must offer coverage to children under 26 on their parents’ policies.

* Insurance companies must cover preventive procedures (such as colonoscopies, mammograms and immunizations) without co-payments.

* Insurance companies must allow customers joining new plans to keep their own doctors.

* Insurance companies must allow customers to appeal reimbursement decisions to a third party.

People with common sense need to echo this good news of change right up until election day.

And when Tea Party seniors try to diss uninsured children and muffle the good news by turning up the din volume, ask them if they are going to burn their Social Security and Medicare cards.