Anti-Obamacare GOPer: Where's my healthcare?

[SirNitram]

Link

A conservative Maryland physician elected to Congress on an anti-Obamacare platform surprised fellow freshmen at a Monday orientation session by demanding to know why his government-subsidized health care plan takes a month to kick in.

Republican Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist who defeated freshman Democrat Frank Kratovil on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, reacted incredulously when informed that federal law mandated that his government-subsidized health care policy would take effect on Feb. 1 – 28 days after his Jan. 3rd swearing-in.

“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”.

“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.

Harris, a Maryland state senator who works at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and several hospitals on the Eastern Shore, also told the audience, “This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” his spokeswoman Anna Nix told POLITICO.

Under COBRA law, Harris can pay a premium to extend his current health insurance an additional month.

Nix said Harris, who is the father of five, wasn’t being hypocritical – he was just pointing out the inefficiency of government-run health care.

Harris hammered Kratovil on health care throughout a bitter fall campaign, despite the fact that the conservative Democrat voted twice against the reform package backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a close Kratovil ally.

“Although he voted against Obamacare, Mr. Kratovil refuses to commit to its repeal. Dr. Harris understands that the Obama-Pelosi-Hoyer agenda threatens to pull the plug on America's long-term health," Harris said in an Oct. 30 statement. “"In Washington, I will never vote to raise taxes, I will fight to repeal health-care reform, and I will work to balance the budget."

Sure he wasn't being hypocritical.

[Themightytom]

he's a doctor, he's probably never seen anyone without health care and assumed it was all just hooey.

"good lord, is this what I've been doing to people???"

[Losonti Tokash]

"This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,”

What a coincidence! I've never received any healthcare coverage from any of my employers, even after years of employment.

[bobalot]

As I understand it, in America it's quite common to have to wait a few months for health coverage (if your job offers it). Doesn't this guy have any experience of the real world?

[eion]

Ah, congratulations Maryland 1st Congressional District, another fine freshman congressman joins the fold.

It's a rare breed of politician that can demonstrate himself to be an incompetent, hypocritical idiot before he's even sworn into office.

[Thanas]

He is a doctor. I guess these tend to have jobs with health plans.

[Chardok]

“Although he voted against Obamacare, Mr. Kratovil refuses to commit to its repeal. Dr. Harris understands that the Obama-Pelosi-Hoyer agenda threatens to pull the plug on America's long-term health," Harris said in an Oct. 30 statement. “"In Washington, I will never vote to raise taxes, I will fight to repeal health-care reform, and I will work to balance the budget."

Welcome to 1988?

[neoolong]

“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.

LOL. I guess Harris didn't realize you can buy gap insurance from insurance companies.

[Losonti Tokash]

He is a doctor. I guess these tend to have jobs with health plans.

Not necessarily. I've got precisely jack in benefits and I work as an EMT. Yeah, there's a bit of a difference in expertise and training, but it is a bit ironic that as a part of the healthcare system, I am unable to actually use it if I need to.

[SCRawl]

Harris, a Maryland state senator who works at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and several hospitals on the Eastern Shore, also told the audience, “This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” his spokeswoman Anna Nix told POLITICO.

Now, maybe things are different in Canada where most catastrophic health needs are already covered, but every job I've ever had has had a probationary period during which there were no extended health benefits. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to put the new guy on the plan before it's known for sure whether or not he'll be staying.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I will never vote to raise taxes... and I will work to balance the budget."

You can't have it both ways.

[Phantasee]

Our student unions at the U of A and MacEwan instituted health and dental plans for undergraduate students. They don't take effect until 60 days after the start of your first semester enrolled in the plan. I think the idea is to keep people from registering for classes for the benefits and dropping the classes before the deadline.

I can't think of any reason health care Congressmen would need similar restrictions. It's not like people get elected just for the health and dental benefits.

[Questor]

Our student unions at the U of A and MacEwan instituted health and dental plans for undergraduate students. They don't take effect until 60 days after the start of your first semester enrolled in the plan. I think the idea is to keep people from registering for classes for the benefits and dropping the classes before the deadline.

I can't think of any reason health care Congressmen would need similar restrictions. It's not like people get elected just for the health and dental benefits.

It may have to do with the plan year. Assuming that this plan is in any way comparable to many other public employee plans, there will be an "open enrollment" period, followed by the start of the plan year. Given the convoluted way elections can be decided, I can understand why they might need time from the person's official "hire date".

Heck, it may even be some law passed by congress to make sure that other employee groups don't abuse their healthcare and the authors forgot to exclude congress from it.

[Invictus ChiKen]

The spin machine on Right Wing boards is trying to say he was pointing out government inefficiency. Too bad it rings hollow to those of us whom government healthcare is all we can get.

[SCRawl]

I will never vote to raise taxes... and I will work to balance the budget."

You can't have it both ways.

Just to play devil's advocate here, but yes, you can. You can cut spending by 40%, and by those means balance the budget without raising taxes. You can print trillions of extra dollars, fork them over to our debt holders, and pay down the debt without raising taxes. Both of these plans have particularly nasty side effects, but according to your random right-wing guy, raising taxes sounds just as bad.

As an aside, I was listening to a guy -- an elected official, I believe -- on "Hardball" the other day, who was saying how pissed off he was because the lefties keep talking about how they can't responsibly allow the high-end tax cuts to continue. "It's not their money," he would vent, "it belongs to the people who made it" (or something like that). Yes, and those roads, schools, sewage systems, and oh yeah, the fucking armed forces just pay for themselves from petty cash.

[Pelranius]

The spin machine on Right Wing boards is trying to say he was pointing out government inefficiency. Too bad it rings hollow to those of us whom government healthcare is all we can get.

For what it's worth, the Republicans I talked to about it think he's a douche too.

Your point still proves Scott Adam's cabbage corollary*, though.

*If one of the two main political parties was to run a head of cabbage for president, said cabbage would collect 30% of the votes because party partisans can pretty much rationalize anything.

[The Yosemite Bear]

you have to realize that these people have no concept of reality....