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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for Friday, March 26, 2010.

I am David Plotz.

I'm here in Washington in our Slate, D.C. office with Will Salatin, who is a special guest sitting

in for Emily Bazelon, who is on assignment.

And joining us by phone from his sickbed is John Dickerson.

John, now that the health care reform bill has passed, will your sickness get treated?

Or is it not relevant to your sickness?

I don't think it's irrelevant.

But anybody who would have a similar mysterious illness

and who would perhaps have waited until it was so bad they had to go to the emergency room,

over time we'll be able to get covered.

If you're 26 years old or younger, you're going into the topic too soon. Well, you ask the question. I know, but I was just kidding. I didn't really mean it. Oh, all right. Topic one, we're going to talk about health care reform, and John will actually talk about 26-year-olds. And topic two is going to be more on health care reform, particularly abortion, about which Will Salatan is the world's living

authority. And topic three is going to be the scandal in the Catholic Church, and then we'll

have cocktail chatter and all sorts of other great stuff. So, John, back to you. Now, in all seriousness,

as we stand here on Thursday afternoon, the Senate has kicked back to the House the health care reconciliation bill, but President Obama on Tuesday signed health care reform into law.

It now appears pretty certain that the House is going to pass the reconciliation bill.

And so the fixes that everyone talks about will also be signed into law.

As a political matter, John, what is the significance of the health care reform bill's passage?

Well, just one tiny bit of housekeeping before we move on to that question, which is the reason

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