After more than a year of debate, a polarized public, a gridlocked Congress, President Obama finally accomplished what American Presidents for a century have failed to do: pass health care reform. The House and Senate passed different health bills last year, and despite intra-party fighting and unified Republican opposition bolstered by Scott Brown’s election to the Senate in January, the House finally managed to pass the Senate’s version of the bill, which sent it to Obama’s desk this morning to be turned into law. The stars aligned in interesting ways for the historic occasion.

He signed the bill into law on March 23rd 2010, at 11:56 AM in the White House.

The chart has many interesting features, notably the presence of many dignified planets. The Sun is exalted in Aries, the Moon is in its home sign of Cancer, Mars in Leo is in mutual reception with the Sun in Aries, Jupiter is in its home sign of Pisces, and Saturn is exalted in Libra. It’s interesting that the bill concerns the health of the people, and the Moon represents both “the people” and the physical body. Not only does the Moon rule the 1st house in this chart, it is also in the 1st house, in its home sign of Cancer.

The Sun in Aries in the 10th being opposed by Saturn in Libra in the 4th is quite descriptive of the skepticism and opposition to the plan and its leaders by conservatives. The Moon in Cancer in the 1st opposed to Pluto in Capricorn in the 7th seems to indicate the tension between the people and the health insurance corporations. Uranus culminating on the Midheaven seems to indicate the radical (historically speaking) aspirations of the bill to provide health insurance as a right.

My Inaccurate Prediction

In my article, “An Astrological History of the Pursuit of Universal Healthcare” I stated:

I predict that [Obama] will make the most progress on the bill while Mercury is retrograde, and while Saturn is in Virgo, which limits a potential bill to appear in September-October 2009 or April-May 2010.

Well, I was off by about 2 weeks on the Saturn front, and Mercury is definitely not retrograde right now.  The obvious answer to why this was a bad prediction to make is that determining the success of an effort cannot be determined by one astrological factor, as the placement of Saturn was for my observations. However, most of the work for healthcare reform did take place while Saturn was in Virgo though, including nearly the entirety of the 2008 primaries and presidential race, in which healthcare was a big issue, as well as most of 2009 which featured the initial stumbles on the bill and the first healthcare protests. As I noted in the article, the placement of Saturn does not guarantee the success of an effort, it just indicates that there will be an attempt. Healthcare reform may be done, but the President realizes that he still has to convince a skeptical public. Shortly, Saturn will return to Virgo for a few months, and so it will be interesting to see what developments occur at the time that I expected a bill to arrive.

Article tags: Barack Obama, healthcare reform

Written by Patrick Watson

Patrick is an astrologer originally from High Wycombe, England. His personal practice is based on a blend of ancient and modern astrology. He is a member of the Association for Young Astrologers.