118. House Bill 3962 - Part 1

House Bill 3962 - Affordable Health Care for America Act’

Is it readable? Well, it’s constructed, organized, and written at a level not “as smart as a 5^th grader.” If you can get past a document that violates all outlining rules you learned in junior high school English and want to jump around in the document instead of going to one logical place or in a logical order to get an answer, then you might have a shot at wading through the muck. But, don’t count on it without some additional guidance, like expecting things to be repeated 5-6 times because the same change might affect 5-6 different, existing pieces of legislature. This is one example of poor organization and a major reason the bill is five times longer than it should be.

Here are a few things that need to be overlooked to get you through the bill:

1. Page 2 begins an overall outline of the bill. TITLE V has some Subtitles under it. Oops. They are wrong! The detailed outline for Division A begins on page 5 and is different for TITLE V – compare Page 7 to Page 2! Looks like the bill is off to a wrong start – how about a “D” for the table of contents!
2. General Definitions on beginning on Page 9 are a real kick. Instead of creating a section of definitions one could reference when required, they created a mix of some of that, but mostly an index into the 1900+ document or other documents where the word is “supposedly” defined for real. Give them an “F” for this.
3. What about the repetitions? If they would have listed all the other acts/legislation that also change in one place you’d have a picture of the complexity of changing a single piece of legislature. I would have them created an appendix for each of these acts/legislature and put the specific changes within the appropriate ones. Up front then they would have only needed to tell you IN ENGLISH what is new or different and refer to the appropriate appendices for specific changes in those acts/legislature. Thus, just give us a clear shot at understanding what this bill is about, then allow us to go to the appendices for details elsewhere. Again, another “F” for organization and complexity.
4. My first hang up though was on Page 1 – the goal “reduce the growth in health care spending”. Isn’t it clever that the word “spending” was used instead of “cost”! What’s the difference? If you read my Posts 113 and 111, you’ll understand that “spending” = “Perceived costs” and are the dollars you take out of your pocket to pay the insurer or to pay the medical provider; whereas, “cost” is the dollars it takes to provide the medical good/service. COST = SPENDING (Insurance Premium + Out-of-Pocket co-pay or co-insurance + TAXES (a hidden cost) + Additional Waiting costs (loss pay, etc.). Reducing “spending” doesn’t cut Health Costs! Insurance premiums go up because the overall cost continues to go up. We must reduce COST! Since the goals are wrong, I must already give this bill a double “F-” (did you know there was something less than an “F”?)
5. The outline structure is almost completely opposite of good document organization – we would expect I.A.1.a.(1),(a) as the logical indentation order. Expect instead to see (a).(1).a.1.A. Also, don’t expect to see things indented always to the right. The lack of structure makes this document almost impossible to follow to determine where a particular paragraph belongs.

These shortcomings contribute greatly to the reasons why this government has lost its way and is no longer trusted. It looks like it is intentionally written like this to “hide” something. Well, you’ll see that it is, e.g.:

• You’ll read about an undecided benefit that may be included after the bill is signed – specifically oral health care. Of course these costs aren’t going to be part of the original estimate.
• You’ll also see the use of large figures (e.g., $5,000,000,000) to entice you into believing that this amount can’t possibly be exceeded, but on Page 26, you’ll find hidden actions that if it is actions such as “adjustments … to eliminate such deficit, including reducing benefits, increasing premiums, or establishing waiting lists” will be necessary.

Additional Posts will be my interpretation of the bill IN ENGLISH. Maybe this will help you understand what this bill is about.