The Colbert Healthcare Challenge: Part 3

When we last left our intrepid heroine she was on page 143 of the 1018 page House healthcare bill. Let’s tune in…. (If you missed how this whole thing began, click here.)

I am now up to page 243. I wish I was further along, but it’s a long, slow, read. (And you know, the new season of “Psych” has started, I’m a busy woman.) I’ve got to be honest here, on more than one occasion, while desperately trying to make sense of what I’m reading, I’ve fallen asleep. I’m not proud to admit it, but yes, my head would droop and I would wake up from my chin hitting my lower neck. That said, I also came to another alarming realization. Remember how in Part 2 I said, “It’s constantly referencing other sections of the bill, and nine times out of ten it’s a section nowhere near the section you’re reading.”? Well, it’s not just referencing other sections of the healthcare bill; it’s often referencing other sections of ENTIRELY DIFFERENT BILLS! That’s right; in order to fully understand this bill I would need to access several other bills. Guess what? Not going to happen.

I think we’re all starting to get a clear picture on why no one, regardless of what side of the aisle they’re on, can coherently and intelligently discuss this bill. I’m beginning to think that the Democrats might be happy that they have all these people yelling and interrupting them, it keeps them from having to actually try to explain this beast. You want to throw a politician off at one of these town hall meetings, politely ask a very pointed, detail oriented question….and watch them sweat!

I have to admit, that not a whole lot of this bill is sinking in or making sense to me. I understand the words, but I have trouble seeing the whole picture. What I have noticed, and is cool, is that sometimes I’ll read a news story about the House bill and I’ll have this flash. It’s like I’m Bruce Willis at the end of “The Sixth Sense”; there is a montage of pages that flicker through my mind’s eye and I can go, oh crap, I do remember reading that. So I guess that means this is not an entirely pointless endeavor, just mostly pointless. Yay!

So what meager offerings do I have for you aside from my aforementioned revelations?

– Still no sign of death panels.
– Looks like they’re doing a whole lot that is affecting Medicare. If only I knew anything about Medicare, then I would be able to understand how good or bad that is.
– If the bill goes through as is, which is highly unlikely, everyone will be required to have health insurance, either through their employer or the government. It appears that you can get permission to opt out of any sort of health coverage on religious grounds.
– This is still, most definitely, not looking like a socialist plot to take control of our federal government.

And one final note to leave you with…..

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), you don’t need to read the bill? Congratulations, you’re now on my list of people whose opinions I do not need to care about.