The good ol' grandstanding Good Ol' Boys in Congress may have done it to themselves this time.
In an effort to show that their so-called health care reform–ultimately labeled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–would cover everyone equally, the Senate Finance Committee added an amendment to cut off coverage for themselves and their staff members in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (F.E.H.B.P.).
"See, we're just like you" was the charade intended message.
Thing is, the authors of the amendment failed to provide an implementing date, and laws without dates of implementation take effect immediately.
Ergo, legally Members of Congress and their staffs should now be giving up their current health insurance plan.
Fat chance that they'll do that, of course, but it just shows how imprecise and open to interpretation is just about everything in the so-called reform (read: takeover) measure.
“It is unclear whether members of Congress and Congressional staff who are currently participating in F.E.H.B.P. may be able to retain this coverage,” the official Congressional Research Service said in an 8,100-word memorandum.
“This omission, whether intentional or inadvertent, raises questions regarding interpretation and implementation that cannot be definitively resolved by the Congressional Research Service,” the report says. “The statute does not appear to be self-executing, but rather seems to require an administrating or implementing authority that is not specifically provided for by the statutory text.”
It would be beautifully ironic if Congress suddenly had to go without health insurance and go out on the open market and purchase their own until 2014.
Fat chance of that, but one can hope.
Congress May Lose Its Health Care Now Due to Poorly Written Law is a post from: Labor Law Guy
