It’s a Legislative Circus Out There
Craig Hasday
President, National Employee Benefits Practice | Directing Strategic Employee Benefit Growth | epicbrokers.com
My predictive skills have been working pretty well on healthcare reform. I suggested that it wouldn’t be easy or quick. I thought the House would fall in line and the Senate would eke something out – and that it ultimately will come to a thumbs up / thumbs down in both houses of Congress. With John McCain’s emotional return for the Senate vote to proceed and Vice President Pence’s tie-breaking vote, we are almost down that long road. Rumors that the circus is closing down are proving false, at least as it appears on the Senate floor. The votes over the past couple of days didn’t really have much of a chance of passage: the outright repeal vote and the Better Care Reconciliation Act vote (which already failed) reemerged only to have Senators on record. (Seriously, doesn’t Washington care how stupid we must look to the rest of the world?)
It seems likely that the Senate will put together something which may pass that doesn’t quite repeal the Affordable Care Act. It may be a skinny version which eliminates the individual and employer mandate and repeals some of the taxes imposed by the ACA. This bill would then be brought to the House for reconciliation with their bill. The reconciled bill must meet the rules to qualify for a simple majority vote. But (and it’s a big but) then the Senate and House will need to pass the bill without modification. While I was hopeful that rational thought would take over, it seems it will need to wait for this last-gasp trapeze act by the Republicans. I am not ready to make a prediction on whether that happens.
This bill, if passed, would be most impactful to the 11 million Americans covered by individual plans and also to those who acquired coverage under Medicaid expansion. To the vast majority of America, this emotional, news-consuming legislation won’t have any immediate effect, but its implications do underpin our healthcare system. Emotions are running wild on all sides. Stay close to the news – I will.
I write weekly about healthcare in America and employee benefits in Frenkel Benefits' blog.
For more insight about the future of the healthcare landscape and legislation now that President Trump is in office, subscribe to receive our weekly blog posts or follow along with my LinkedIn articles.
Maintenance Analyst
7 年Well, I'm breaking one of my cardinal rules about commenting on something that can be considered political on a professional site (LinkedIn), but in my view it ties in with a much larger problem. That is personal responsibility. This ties in with workplace philosophy, so I guess I can justify it that way. 1.) If you have more people riding the cart than pulling the cart, you will have problems. Whether it is the ratio of people on state aide vs those working and contributing or pulling their weight in the workplace. Government sponsored assistance is needed. Period. The problem arises when it is used as an incentive to vote in a particular way instead of being assigned by legitimate need. In the workplace, an analogy can be drawn between the ratio of so called "Yes Men", "Cheer Leaders" and so-called "Trolls". We can not all ignore problems that arise and hope that fate will wave a magic wand and all the cooked metrics will miraculously come true. That pesky imp, Reality, eventually raises it's head. 2.) When we run to the doctor for every little sniffle and scrape, costs are driven up. On the job, if we raise an alarm without thoroughly studying the issue and gather data and facts, we become a so-called "Troll" and that deters efforts to address legitimate problems in the future. I hate the term "Science Project". I have heard this so many times by the "Yes Man", "Cheer Leader" and metrics massaging managers. Gathering data to address a legitimate concern is necessary. You can not resolve problems without determining first off if you have a problem. The first step is understanding the process. That requires gathering data. Does our process have a sniffle or pneumonia? Look at the data. Don't "Cry Wolf". 3.) Healthy living habits. You chain smoke? Drink heavy? Other unhealthy habits? Take vitamins? Some habits are good. Some bad. In the work place, you need vitamins in the form of EXPERIENCED AND HONEST people addressing a problem. Too often we open up a fresh pack of "Yes Men" and press on ignoring that persistent cough. Yet again, everything in moderation. To keep things moving, sometimes requirements need to be waived. There are, or should be processes for that allowing the delivery of product with the understanding that a problem has been noted and it is being studied. There is no excuse for covering up a problem. That is called fraud.
The CFO and The Acting Principal.
7 年- A nice way to remember!