Weeks Later and Still Confusing

It’s now been several weeks since the health care reform bill was passed and many Americans are looking for answers on how the bill will impact them. They are not the only ones that express confusion towards the bill. Members of Congress don’t quite understand it either.

Case in point? The new law inadvertently kicks some Congress members and staffers off their health plan. Currently, federal government employees, including members of Congress receive their health coverage through the Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) system.

Under the new law, a provision requires them to purchase health care coverage through the state-based exchanges. What makes this even more confusing is that while they could be kicked off at any time, state exchanges will not be set up until 2014.

The answer isn’t clear on what will happen. The provision was initially added to put members of Congress on the same playing field as other Americans and to make good on the promise that the public would receive the same coverage as Congress.

This leads us to wonder… how can we understand a health care reform package that few people, or even Congress understands?

Various polls have shown that the public is even more hostile about the reform package now that it’s passed. Most don’t even understand what the legislation entails and how it will affect them. Then again, neither does Congress.

While we see these many types of issues continue to unfold, our objectives are to do the best we can to understand these provisions and help our customers do the same.  Stay with us – it’s going to be a long journey.