Health Care Bills – Who Writes This Stuff?
Those who know me know that I am not very political. I hate listening to the rhetoric and arguing for the sake of arguing. I spent over 30 years in the health care industry working for insurance companies, brokers and consulting firms. So even I can’t ignore the health care debate.
With the release of the House Health Care Reform bill in October 2009, I quickly became frustrated by all the “discussions” of what it contained. So, I downloaded a copy – all 1,990 pages of it. I wanted to read it for myself. When did I get into self-abuse?
It’s not the first time I looked at health care legislation. In my career, I worked with attorneys on reviewing legislation to translate it for clients. But, this latest legislation got me wondering, “Who writes this stuff?” It certainly requires a highly-skilled person to create a maze of twists and turns that make following a point an E ticket ride into confusion. Let me give you an example.
1 (c) GENERAL DEFINITIONS.—Except as otherwise
2 provided, in this division:
3 (1) ACCEPTABLE COVERAGE.—The term ‘‘ac-
4 ceptable coverage’’ has the meaning given such term
5 in section 302(d)(2).
6 (2) BASIC PLAN.—The term ‘‘basic plan’’ has
7 the meaning given such term in section 303(c).
8 (3) COMMISSIONER.—The term ‘‘Commis-
9 sioner’’ means the Health Choices Commissioner es-
10 tablished under section 241.
The above section is on page 9 of the Bill, under “Definitions.” To find the definitions, you have to flip to other sections, go back to page 9, go to another section, then back to page 9, well, you get the idea. Caution: individuals with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome should refrain from reading this Bill. It can lead to further destruction of wrists from repetitive flipping motion.
The goal of my writing is to keep it simple, thus, the blog name, simply stated health care. I will do my best to keep health care simple and informative. I wonder how the individuals who write these bills define “simple.”
1 (1) SIMPLE.—The term ‘‘sim-
2 ple” has the meaning given such term
3 in section 104(b)(4).
