HHS: Call health care reform a law, not a bill

Politico.com ^ | 2/1/11 | KATE NOCERA

[ColdOne]

Even before Monday’s big news broke on the federal case in Florida, the Obama administration was telling health reform supporters to talk about health care confidently as the law of the land.

Richard Sorian, assistant secretary of public affairs for the department of Health and Human Services, said too many supporters were still referring to the Affordable Care Act as a “bill.”

“We need to be talking all the time as to what the law is doing for people, and make sure we remind people it’s the law,” Sorian said at a Herndon Alliance meeting with health care advocates and activists on Saturday. “It’s not a bill… to overturn it would be changing the law. And it’s not a new law. It’s been working for ten months now.”

[Buckeye McFrog]

For years I’ve been crying for any bill created by legislaure should go to the judicial branch for a sign-off because way too much legislation becomes “accepted” as law before it ever gets a challenge. Even if we get to challenge it, we have no standing as individuals to do so.

This is one of the very few things that the French got right.
New laws go before the Constitutional Court for review before the President signs them into law.

[DrC]

““We found out that people are stuck in ‘slob-lock,’ where they remain married to someone they aren’t crazy about because the marriage provides them health insurance benefits,” Sorian said with a laugh. “That’s a good one — people can relate to that.”

That’s exactly the quote that jumped out at me. They should hold hearings and invite people in this situation to testify. The premise is that the person with health benefits (most would regard that person as the “responsible” partner) is the SLOB and the person freeloading on their hard-earned benefits (even while ridiculing them behind their back) is the VICTIM. One might think that most spouses in that situation would be quite grateful to be married to a partner with health benefits.

It’s hard to imagine anyone volunteering to explain their slob-lock “plight” to Congress. But it surprises me not at all that progressives would see the world this way.