Politico shook up the health care policy world Wednesday night with a report that members of Congress in both parties were holding secret talks to try to exempt members and their staffs from Obamacare. Before I get into the complicated layers of issues involved, the bigger picture is this: members of Congress and their staffs are grappling with the type of uncertainty and logistical headaches that individuals and businesses are struggling with as they try to adapt to life under an extremely complex and poorly drafted law.
The essential issue is this. Back in Sept. 2009, when the Finance Committee was drafting its version of the health care bill, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offered a conceptual amendment that required members of Congress and their staffs to enroll in the health care program being contemplated by Democrats. Beyond the political value, the idea was to make sure that Congress was living under the laws they were imposing on the rest of the country. The conceptual amendment passed, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid inserted the actual language that made it into the law.
