Healthcare law's perks, costs draw near

David Peabody is looking at the new federal health-care law with apprehension. Ericka Haverkos sees in it reason for hope. These two Columbus residents are emblematic of millions of Americans who next year will have to adapt to the most sweeping changes in the delivery of health care since the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid during the height of the Great Society in 1965. To Peabody, the new law will impose steep costs on his company and force him to decide whether to insure his 65 workers — a number that fluctuates with the season — or pay a fine to the federal government that would eat into a third of his $180,000 profit last year.