greenbear
16th April 2010, 06:44 PM
I hope and pray this is true!
Link to Original Article (http://www.examiner.com/x-35532-Dallas-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m4d13-Holy-mistake-Congress-wipes-out-congressional-health-care-insurance)
Legislate in haste, repent at leisure. Looks like Congress is having one of those "Holy S---!" moments; it appears they have royally mucked up their own health insurance - for all 535 members of Congress and untold congressional employees. In a hurry, they forgot to get it right and wrote it all wrong; now it's the law...
Now Congress is in the same boat they built for the rest of America, without a clue what the new health care reform will mean to them. The beauty of their delimma is pure poetic justice to some -they have written law requiring that they move into a system that doesn't yet exist.
How could that be? Simple, a scaled-down provision of Republic Senator Grassley's “Health Reform Accountability Act†- this one requiring all congress members and their employees, with the exception of Senate committee and leadership staffs, to get their health insurance through the same health insurance exchanges where the general public would get theirs was left in the bill, unopposed, and was signed into law by President Obama.
It appears that the poorly written law is so mangled that “It is unclear whether members of Congress and Congressional staff who are currently participating in F.E.H.B.P. may be able to retain this coverage,†the research service said in an 8,100-word memorandum. "
Some are concerned, and rightly so, that as written, the bill can be interpreted to mean that the second the bill went into law - their own insurance that they know and love - was wiped out. It's a long stretch to 2014, when health care exchanges go into effect and the law (as written) voids their insurance without providing a alternative. Whatever are they to do in the meantime?
Of course that was never their intent, their intent may have been to scrap the amendment altogether - or to revisit and firm up exactly how, when, and by whom all of this was to be handled- but, Oops! they forgot. Unfortunately, they were in rush to pass the bill and never looked back.
Now looking forward is full of panic and a scrambling effort to "fix" what may end up being decided in court. The courts are inclined to judge law as it is written, not by what the author intended to write. How do you even explain this to a judge? Dare they try to plead it is unfair to execute a law conceived in haste, poorly composed, legally illiterate, and signed into law - unread? We all know a few states who would like to try precisely that.
What a mess their insurance is in now; and these are the same buffoons who wrote ours - trust us, they said. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Obama - what a triumph of leadership!
If you are so inclined, read the report here and *wink* weep
EDIT: Changed link to named link, to prevent forum scrolling 2 pages to the right. -Gaillo
Link to Original Article (http://www.examiner.com/x-35532-Dallas-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m4d13-Holy-mistake-Congress-wipes-out-congressional-health-care-insurance)
Legislate in haste, repent at leisure. Looks like Congress is having one of those "Holy S---!" moments; it appears they have royally mucked up their own health insurance - for all 535 members of Congress and untold congressional employees. In a hurry, they forgot to get it right and wrote it all wrong; now it's the law...
Now Congress is in the same boat they built for the rest of America, without a clue what the new health care reform will mean to them. The beauty of their delimma is pure poetic justice to some -they have written law requiring that they move into a system that doesn't yet exist.
How could that be? Simple, a scaled-down provision of Republic Senator Grassley's “Health Reform Accountability Act†- this one requiring all congress members and their employees, with the exception of Senate committee and leadership staffs, to get their health insurance through the same health insurance exchanges where the general public would get theirs was left in the bill, unopposed, and was signed into law by President Obama.
It appears that the poorly written law is so mangled that “It is unclear whether members of Congress and Congressional staff who are currently participating in F.E.H.B.P. may be able to retain this coverage,†the research service said in an 8,100-word memorandum. "
Some are concerned, and rightly so, that as written, the bill can be interpreted to mean that the second the bill went into law - their own insurance that they know and love - was wiped out. It's a long stretch to 2014, when health care exchanges go into effect and the law (as written) voids their insurance without providing a alternative. Whatever are they to do in the meantime?
Of course that was never their intent, their intent may have been to scrap the amendment altogether - or to revisit and firm up exactly how, when, and by whom all of this was to be handled- but, Oops! they forgot. Unfortunately, they were in rush to pass the bill and never looked back.
Now looking forward is full of panic and a scrambling effort to "fix" what may end up being decided in court. The courts are inclined to judge law as it is written, not by what the author intended to write. How do you even explain this to a judge? Dare they try to plead it is unfair to execute a law conceived in haste, poorly composed, legally illiterate, and signed into law - unread? We all know a few states who would like to try precisely that.
What a mess their insurance is in now; and these are the same buffoons who wrote ours - trust us, they said. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Obama - what a triumph of leadership!
If you are so inclined, read the report here and *wink* weep
EDIT: Changed link to named link, to prevent forum scrolling 2 pages to the right. -Gaillo