Despite the "sky is falling" rhetoric of the health insurance companies and the opposition groups they funded, the world, in fact, has not ended. In fact, starting today - September 23, 2010 - health insurance companies can no longer drop your policy or retroactively cancel it if you get sick.

Before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, insurers could use loopholes to justify rescinding their policy when customers actually tried to use the benefits they paid for. This unfair practice usually happened when a policyholder needed expensive care.

Not exactly the "socialism" or "death panels" we were warned about by naysayers. And while many agree that the health insurance reform bill that passed last year could have done more, this provision alone was worth fighting for and your union was proud to be one of the leading voices in favor of reforming our country's healthcare system.