Follow this link to see the House of Representatives version of the bill. The link points to a pdf file.  You must have a pdf reader such as one from Adobe to read it.

In comments on an article in the Worcester T & G, I read some pretty severe criticisms of the bill.

I asked one complainer to be specific about the complaint.  The complaint referred to “Beginning on page 16 of the bill it discusses ‘Grandfathered’ Health Insurance. AKA Private or Job acquired Health Insurance”, in the complainer’s words.

Among many other things the complainant believed that, “It goes on to say that no one not already enrolled can enroll in private insurance.”  He thought this spelled the end of private insurance for people not already enrolled.

I looked it up.  In my mind the complainer has completely misread this section of the bill.

The bill is giving a definition of what kind of policy will be grand fathered in and not covered by the bill.  The voluminous restrictions in this part of the bill were only trying to explain what is required of a policy to be grand-fathered.  This section  was not restricting policies that were not trying to be grand-fathered.

To be grand fathered, the policy must not change after it has been grand fathered. If the policy does not meet the grand fathering criteria spelled out in this section of the bill, then it will be a regular private policy that comes under the terms of the bill.

Here is an example of the difference between being grand-fathered and not grand-fathered. A grand-fathered insurance policy could exclude pre-existing condition coverage. One that is not grand-fathered would not be able to exclude pre-existing conditions because this bill forbids that practice.

If people at the Worcester town hall meeting had been able to explain in a civilized manner what it is that bothered them about the bill, then the presenters could either note their valid complaint or they could explain the misunderstanding.

For the fomenters of the protests, I would bet the purpose is to prevent such rational discussions.

If you don’t believe my explanation, go look it up and decide for yourself.