• I was travelling!

      November 17, 2010 at 11:26 am
      Aaron Carroll

    I can’t believe how many emails I got yesterday about Congressman Andy Harris demanding his government paid health insurance, asking where my post on it was.

    My apologies.  I was actually talking to a group yesterday about the health care system and reform, and could not blog as usual.  You are right, though.  This story would have allowed me to be at my sarcastic best.  The fact that a strong opponent of health care reform wants his government-paid insurance, wants it now, argues that being without insurance for a month is really bad, and then basically asks for the public option… well… it’s the perfect storm of irony.

    Go read it if you don’t know what I’m talking about.  It’s awesome.

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      Health Policy
      public option

    • by Abalone on November 17th, 2010 at 13:03

      “The fact that a strong opponent of health care reform wants his government-paid insurance…”

      No, he wants his employer-provided insurance. That his employer happens to be the government is beside the point. Folks typically conflate what the government offers its employees in its role as employer what it offers its citizens in its role as government program manager. The role distinction is critical. If the federal government as employer wants to set up fitness centers in its office buildings, offer a disability insurance benefit, or stock its break rooms with cookies, that has nothing do do with any government program and doesn’t affect citizens in the least.

      “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.”

      A “perfect storm of irony” requires critical thinking.

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      • by Aaron Carroll on November 17th, 2010 at 14:15

        The fact that “This is the only employer [he’s] ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed” shows how out of touch he is. From the Kaiser Family Foundation (emphasis mine):

        Seventy-four percent of covered workers face a waiting period before coverage is available. Covered workers in the Northeast are less likely (64%) than workers in other regions to face a waiting period. Covered workers in retail (90%), health care (86%), and agriculture/mining/construction (85%) firms are more likely than workers in other industries to face a waiting period (Exhibit 3.7).

        * The average waiting period among covered workers who face a waiting period is 2.2 months (Exhibit 3.7). Thirty-one percent of covered workers face a waiting period of 3 months or more (Exhibit 3.8).

        I’m sorry, but it’s still a great story.

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