By Kevin Meyer
It has started even sooner than I expected. In this new era of supposed transparency and deliberation – at least that's what was promised – the over 2000 page bill to restructure one sixth of the economy was given 72 hours for peer review. Most of us in the real world outside of the beltway knew what would happen…
The Obama administration said Wednesday it would issue regulations to
make clear that insurers must cover sick children, fixing what appears
to be a glitch in the new health law.Under current law, insurers may reject applications from someone who is
already sick. The legislation aimed to ban that practice for children
this year, and for adults in 2014. Some, including the insurance industry's lobby, read the bill's
language to say insurers must cover the cost of care for children with
pre-existing conditions who already have insurance, not that insurers
must accept new young customers who are already sick.
That is one of the most important aspects of the bill, and ironically one both sides basically agreed on. It could have been easily passed a year ago under a kaizen approach instead of the kaikaku wallop.
2000 pages… 72 hours… one sixth of the economy. And less than 24 hours before the first problem is found and a band aid proposed. We all know what band aids do… add layers of complexity and cost. Remember how true lean companies approach PDCA – Plan Do Check Act – 60-70% of the time is spent on the Plan stage.
Welcome to ACDP.
Mark Graban says
President Obama broke his pledge that there would be 5 days to review “non emergency bills”
“To reduce bills rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them, Obama “will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/234/allow-five-days-of-public-comment-before-signing-b/
I still don’t understand why this was so time-critical as to rush it through on a SUNDAY.
Jim Fernandez says
I’m no insurance expert. But suppose I went to an insurance company to buy fire insurance for my home after my home burned down. And then I put in a claim for the cost of repairing the damages that occurred to my home before I had the insurance policy. What would the insurance company say? In a court of law, what would a judge say? And how do you calculate the risk and therefore the cost of the premium for something like that?
I think the name “health insurance plan” will need to be changed to “free medical coverage plan”.
Tim McMahon says
All this on top of the immediate call by companies already warning about higher health-care costs. I thought this would save money. I guess playing with the numbers works for the government. Just not companies.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703312504575141642402986422.html
What happened to respect for people from Washington. We should expect and demand better.