By Lisa Codispoti, Senior Counsel, National Women's Law Center

There is a lot of Wednesday morning quarterbacking about the reasons for, and impact of, yesterday’s election in Massachusetts.

As it relates to health reform, I think that more than a few people are getting it wrong. Regarding those who say that the election was a rebuke of health reform, or that health reform is dead, I would say, they are full of Boston Beans.

Here’s why: Massachusetts already has health reform, with an individual mandate, an employer mandate, and, at 97 percent, the highest rate of people with insurance in the country. As of last fall, a full 79 percent of Massachusetts residents supported their reform plan. And health reform legislation, like in the Senate bill, expressly contemplates allowing states like Massachusetts to continue along.

And to those who would say health reform is dead, I would say, hold on!! Will it be harder? Yes -- there is no denying that both substantively and politically, it will be a tougher road to hoe. But as we have repeatedly said, if health reform was easy, we would have done it decades ago.

In my mind, the key reason why health reform is not dead -- and cannot be dead -- is that the 31-million-plus reasons why we need health reform did not disappear with yesterday’s election. Simply put, yesterday’s election did not end the problems of people who lack health care, nor did it end unaffordable health care, nor insurance discrimination, nor gender rating, nor insurance coverage that doesn’t meet the needs of women.

The election did not end insurance discrimination for people with pre-existing conditions, like Chris Turner faced, when she couldn’t get health insurance at any price because she had received treatment as a sexual assault survivor. The election did not end skimpy or non-existent maternity coverage like Sarah Wildman faced, when she spent $22,000 on the birth of her baby due to her insufficient health coverage. The election didn’t end insurance rejection for having had a C-section, like Peggy Robertson experienced. Nor did yesterday’s election did not change things for my friend Karen, a small business owner with an almost entirely female workforce; she and her employees are charged more for their health insurance simply because they are women.

Indeed, not one of the problems of our current health care system were solved with yesterday’s election. And with each day that goes by, it will only get worse.

Make no mistake -– yesterday’s election creates new challenges for us going forward. But while the results of yesterday’s election may have been a surprise, an even bigger surprise awaits those who would say that health reform is dead. The fight for health reform is far from over.

Cross-posted from Womenstake.