If you haven’t heard the story of newly-elected Maryland Congressman Andy Harris – who campaigned against the health care reform law – complaining about why his own congressman’s health benefits hadn’t kicked in yet – read Julie Rovner’s post on the NPR Shots blog, and see the ad she embedded from the liberal group Americans United for Change.
By the way, Harris is a physician.
As noted, one observer said Harris wondered aloud what he would do without 28 days of health care.
Dr./Congressman Harris, what should 17% of our population do without health insurance – every day for years?
Comments
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c3
November 29, 2010 at 2:53 pmI understand the political mileage that can be gained with this campaign but I don’t get the “outrage”. Is it not possible that someone opposes the PPACA for one of many possible reasons and at the same time is in favor of employer-sponsored health care? If one agrees with that then one could reasonably expect a new employee to wonder why the health care benefit doesn’t start sooner.
A more cogent argument or two would be:
1) Does this mean this physician has been without healthcare? And if so it would indicate that going without healthcare is more than just affordability.
2) How is it that a physician, someone who theoretically must deal with employee-based health insurance on a regular basis, not aware of the common phenomenon of the healthcare benefit not “kicking in” until 30 days post hire? Are physicians that ill informed? Is he likewise not aware of health insurance coverage remaining in effect for the entire month of the month of employment termination? (i.e. if you quit on Nov 2 you’re covered for all of November)
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