Lue C Fur
Evil member
Oops, we did that? More health care surprises
The partisans on the left who preach with certainty about the effects of the new health care law -- it will reduce the federal deficit; it will allow you to keep your current coverage; it will lower premiums -- speak from ignorance. No one really knows what the bill will do, including the members of Congress who voted for it.
A new Congressional Research Service study has found that the law appears to boot members of Congress and their staffers off the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program before the alternative insurance options created by the law will be ready.
In a story headlined: "Baffled by health plan? So are some lawmakers," a national news organization on Monday reported the discrepancy and wrote, "The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?"
To those readers who might think the above quotes were pulled from Fox News, we quote the Russian ambassador, speaking to the President in "Dr. Strangelove": "Our source was The New York Times."
The Times reported that even the staff members of the people who voted to pass this bill will likely lose their coverage. Except, the Times notes, staff in the leadership and committee offices in Congress. The law appears to exempt some people employed by Congress' most powerful members.
This comes after the news that the law did not extend insurance coverage to "children" as old as 26, as intended, and would be highly unlikely to reduce insurance premiums or health care costs (also reported in The New York Times after the bill passed).
We are only beginning to discover what this bill will actually do versus what its advocates claimed it would do. The more that comes out, the clearer it is that rushing such a colossal piece of legislation into law was a huge mistake.
The partisans on the left who preach with certainty about the effects of the new health care law -- it will reduce the federal deficit; it will allow you to keep your current coverage; it will lower premiums -- speak from ignorance. No one really knows what the bill will do, including the members of Congress who voted for it.
A new Congressional Research Service study has found that the law appears to boot members of Congress and their staffers off the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program before the alternative insurance options created by the law will be ready.
In a story headlined: "Baffled by health plan? So are some lawmakers," a national news organization on Monday reported the discrepancy and wrote, "The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?"
To those readers who might think the above quotes were pulled from Fox News, we quote the Russian ambassador, speaking to the President in "Dr. Strangelove": "Our source was The New York Times."
The Times reported that even the staff members of the people who voted to pass this bill will likely lose their coverage. Except, the Times notes, staff in the leadership and committee offices in Congress. The law appears to exempt some people employed by Congress' most powerful members.
This comes after the news that the law did not extend insurance coverage to "children" as old as 26, as intended, and would be highly unlikely to reduce insurance premiums or health care costs (also reported in The New York Times after the bill passed).
We are only beginning to discover what this bill will actually do versus what its advocates claimed it would do. The more that comes out, the clearer it is that rushing such a colossal piece of legislation into law was a huge mistake.
