Really, Who Has the Time to Read HR 3200?

As we’re all well aware, the health care reform bill has been getting quite a bit of attention while Congress is on their annual August recess.  We’ve all seen the protests and the heated debates on the news on the town hall meetings that are being conducted.  During this period of time, one would like to think that it would be easy to go and read the bill, so we can all become well-informed citizens on this important piece of legislation.

I, for one, truly believe in being an educated citizen, so I can at least know whether or not the media is telling the story straight.  So I finally decided to go to my congressman’s website and see if I could find an electronic copy of the bill.  Come to find out, the bill, H.R. 3200 is available for perusal on the Thomas website, a Library of Congress website.  My congressman’s website provided a link to H.R. 3200 which is here.

I must have been delusional to think that this exercise would be short and that I would be able to get through the bill and actually understand what it completely says.  Boy was I sorely mistaken!  The bill is 1000+ pages in length!  Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but I certainly don’t have the time, nor the inclination to read something as dry as a piece of legislation.  How many people actually do?  That’s why it was most curious to me that President Obama, and members of the do-nothing Congress, wanted to rush this bill through and get it passed by the August recess.  It made me actually wonder if these elected representatives actually know what’s in this particular piece of legislation.  I also wonder if the White House actually does.

Add to the difficulty that Congressional leaders and the White House haven’t done a very good job of selling this reform bill other than to simply state “it’s needed.”  What a terrible sales pitch.  My main question is, why do we need mammoth bills like this one is?  Can’t these things be put together in a fashion where we can all have the time to read them and be able to provide feedback to our elected leaders if we decide to do so?  With the way this bill is structured, no one will have the time to read it and provide any feedback.  Is that just me, or am I going crazy?

When I saw how long this bill was, I actually e-mailed my congressman and asked him if his office could put together a five page version pretty much summarizing everything in a manner that everyone can understand.  This method would also provide him the opportunity to put to bed some of the vicious rumors I’ve been hearing about this bill, such as “death panels” which I don’t think is actually in the bill, but other myths as well.  And, since this bill does include the public option that all liberals want, I want to see some of the nitty gritty details on how that would work, and what safeguards are in place to avoid a single payer system.  And how this public option would allow greater competition, before I can make an educated decision on whether to fully support the reform bill or not.  I don’t think that’s too much to ask, or I could be mistaken.

With something as important as this piece of legislation is, and with how it has become so polarized, I think our leaders owe it to us, to do a better job of explaining this bill in less than 1000 pages.  Perhaps I’m just expecting too much.