Health Care Reform (the real post)

I've been sitting here for the better part of two hours now, trying to figure out how to approach this topic. I'm starting to have some serious sympathy for lawmakers, because the sheer scope is daunting as all get out.

I found the text for the actual bill passed by the House a few days ago. I knew the bill would be too big and unwieldy for me to really read. I didn't realize then my half formed thought would be the understatement of the week. Just digging through the table of contents to see the highlights (Public option, rescission abuse reform, exchanges, standards, etc etc) took me just about a half hour. That's without clicking any of those links to try and untangle the legalese.

Are you seriously suggesting those guys up on Capitol Hill actually read this thing (or any other bills) before voting on it?

Title I is all about the immediate reforms Congress wants to address. Prohibiting rescission, getting the uninsured high risk citizens taken care of under a temporary program, pre-existing condition exclusions prohibition, extension of dependent coverage for uninsured young adults, eliminating domestic violence as a pre-existing condition, post retirement reduction of benefits, lifetime limit elimination are all included. All things that needed to be dealt with sooner than when the new law is fully up to speed.

Title II is a key element. It's protections and standards... the pre-existing condition exclusion is specifically outlawed, as is rescission for anything but non-payment of premiums. Rules for rates are laid out, parity in benefits for mental health and substance abuse problems are called for, and essential benefits are defined and required from insurers. An independent Health Choices Administration with a commissioner appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate is established. The rest of the section fits the new changes into the existing framework of government (where attorneys general fit in, the Federal Trade Commission, etc).

Title III covers health care exchanges, and the public option. It establishes both of them, and defines the rules and regs for them.

Title IV is all about responsibility, a split between personal and employer based. Looks like tax penalties if you don't have coverage.

Title V is where they work in the penalties/off sets into the tax code.

This is where the text gets funky...it starts over with Title I again, this time labelled "Improving Health Care Value." Looking down the bullets, it looks like Medicare reforms.

Now, I'd link you to the interactive document that Thomas provides...but the site deletes search results after so many hours, creating a broken link. So I'm gonna link you to their search option...

http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/111search.html

And tell you to punch in 3962. From those results, you want the third entry...the one that was passed on 11/07/09.

On the whole, I'm not sure what's wrong with the bill. I'm really pretty baffled and growing more and more angry when I consider how close this came to not passing. I think it's time to write some letters.