Thread: New GOP lawmaker asks: Why wait for health care?

Nov 16, 2010

New GOP lawmaker asks: Why wait for health care?

12:25 PM
By Steve Ruark, AP

A newly elected Republican member of Congress who hammered his Democratic opponent on health care is wondering why his government-subsidized insurance takes a month to kick in.

Politico is reporting that Andy Harris, an anethesiologist who defeated Rep. Frank Kratovil on Maryland's Eastern Shore, asked what he is supposed to do without health care coverage for 28 days during a briefing session on benefits for new lawmakers.

Harris has said he wants to repeal President Obama's sweeping health care law, which mandates most Americans obtain some kind of health insurance coverage. " ... If we can't repeal it we're going to try to change it in such a way to remove the parts that people don't like," Harris told a Baltimore TV station after he won his rematch against Kratovil.

Politico quotes an unnamed congressional aide who witnessed Monday's exchange at freshman orientation.

Waiting periods for employer-sponsored health benefits aren't unusual. The most common waiting period is 90 days and the average is just over two months, according to the Kaiser Family Foundations survey last year of employer health benefits.

Members of Congress, by the way, get the same health insurance that's offered to all federal employees. USA TODAY's John Fritze reported that members of Congress paid less at the doctor's office than the national average in 2008, but spent more on premiums.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... th-care-/1

So he doesn't want the people to have government sponsored health care
but he wants his government sponsored health care right now?
Strange.

I think he was taking a stab at government controlled health care coverage. He's in the medical profession, he doesn't need government insurance, they take care of their own.

Dixie