Earlier this week, the newly elected members of Congress attended their orientation, which included a session on the benefits that they will receive. At the benefits session, Andy Harris, a newly elected Republican Congressman from Maryland, publicly complained that his federally subsidized health insurance would not begin until February 1, 2011. As Politico reported:
“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”.
“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.
Harris, a Maryland state senator who works at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and several hospitals on the Eastern Shore, also told the audience, “This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” his spokeswoman Anna Nix told POLITICO.
Welcome to the reality that the vast majority of Americans live with, Congressman. As the Kaiser Family Foundation recently found, 74% of Americans who are covered by their employers have a waiting period before such coverage goes into effect and the average waiting period is more than two months.
Even more galling is the fact that Mr. Harris, who is a doctor, ran on a promise to try to repeal the health care reform legislation that the Democrats enacted earlier this year. That legislation would make health insurance significantly more affordable to families earning under $88,000 per year, expand coverage to 32 million Americans who currently lack coverage, and prevented health insurance companies from denying you coverage due to a pre-existing condition or after you get sick. So, while Mr. Harris is demanding health insurance coverage for himself, he is seeking to restrict access to coverage for others.
If you’d like to help Mr. Harris understand the reality that most Americans face regarding health insurance, call his office and respectfully explain how most people who are covered by their employers have to wait for their insurance to take effect, tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, and the health care reform legislation will go a long ways toward making sure everyone has the health insurance that Mr. Harris is demanding.
