Posted by
SmartFella? on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 2:43:09 PM
Our Congress is getting beat about the head and shoulders about a lot of things. The Smartfella? is stepping up to come to their defense about an issue in which they have heretofore been made to look truly derelict…
Ø Their critics have been shouting that they Do Not Read The Bills They Sign Into Law.
Ø Should they read the bills? … Of course they should.
Ø Is it a big waste of time to read the bills? … Of course it is.
Has the Smartfella? lost it? Absolutely not! Conclusive proof of my position is quoted below. As you read down you will see parts of pages 17 and 18 of H. R. 3200 (1,017 pages). A bill that has the subtitle… “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.”
(The Smartfella? is made especially nervous by that last line, “and for other purposes”. That sounds pretty open ended to him.)
My contention is that this excerpt from the bill is not comprehendible by any of them or us. If my representatives in Congress would say to me, “Why should we read this bill there is no way to understand it”. I would instantly see the logic of this argument and I would tell them to go to Happy Hour.
Here is the exact wording from the bill. The other 1,015 pages are more of the same. Can you figure it out?
(page 17)
20 (B) EXCEPTION FOR LIMITED BENEFITS
21 PLANS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to
22 an employment-based health plan in which the
23 coverage consists only of one or more of the fol-
24 lowing:
(page 18)
1 (i) Any coverage described in section
2 3001(a)(1)(B)(ii)(IV) of division B of the
3 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
4 of 2009 (Public Law 111–5).
5 (ii) Excepted benefits (as defined in
6 section 733(c) of the Employee Retirement
7 Income Security Act of 1974), including
8 coverage under a specified disease or ill-
9 ness policy described in paragraph (3)(A)
10 of such section.
11 (iii) Such other limited benefits as the
12 Commissioner may specify.
Those last lines above again make the Smartfella? especially nervous ... “(iii) Such other limited benefits as the Commissioner may specify.”
Pretty open ended is it not?
Or as Yul Brenner said in The King and I, "Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera"
Or as Mel Brooks said in The History of the World Part One, "It's good to be the king".
Would I kid u?