Modified On June 25, 2008
18 months ago, John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei left The Washington Post to create The Politico, a multi-platform, political news content creator. Their Speak To Power feature is described thusly:
The Politico is forgoing a traditional editorial page and, instead, inviting you to weigh in on the important issues confronting Congress and the country. This is your chance to reach lawmakers and their top staff members directly, because The Politico newspaper is delivered right to their doorstep. And you decide which reader-written editorials appear in our paper and online.
We couldn’t resist. For a few years now, the health insurance situation in the Garden State has frustrated us here at SHECKYmagazine. Back a few years ago, the boys in Trenton “reformed” health insurance in our state and severely restricted the number of firms that could offer Garden Staters insurance. When they were done meddling, the highest-priced plan cost $166,704 per person per year and the lowest plan cost $5,873.80 per person per year, or $11,745.60 to insure our household. And that’s with a $2,500 deductible!
So the Male and Female Halves of the Staff have written an editorial outlining their frustrations and urging the passage of a piece of legislation that might make life easier. It’s currently on the top of the page at Speak To Power. An excerpt:
HR 4460 is a bill sponsored by Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ). The Health Care Choice Act of 2007 would obliterate New Jersey’s locked game with regard to insurance. If I understand it correctly, an insurer from another state would be able to offer us affordable health insurance and would be exempt from the onerous laws of Jersey as long as certain minimal and reasonable conditions are met.
We would be free to shop all over the U.S. Under the pretense of protecting us (and “reforming” health insurance) New Jersey has prohibited this simple process for over a decade.
Go here to read the editorial and, if you want to help out the Male Half of the Staff, cast your vote! It will slide down the page (and migrate to subsequent pages) as more editorials are posted, so you may have to hunt for it in a few days. (The editorial with the most votes will be printed in the Politico’s print edition, distributed to lawmakers and shakers throughout the D.C. region.)
There are a lot of comedians living in Jersey. They would benefit from the passage of HR4460!