ACA Title I, Section 1004 – Effective dates: “Ugly” – Way too ambitious! The effective dates for Section 1001 – 1003 are by law …”on or after the date that is 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, except that the amendments made by sections 1002 and 1003 shall become effective for fiscal years beginning with fiscal year 2010.” This is a good example of legislative and administrative over-reach. These effective date provisions deal with some incredibly important facets of health insurance design and operations and they should have been linked to the federal rule making process. Instead they have opened up situations where implementation is uncertain or unclear. I know Congress is impatient to fix the problem of health care and health insurance accessibility and financing, but this type of legislative haste usually turns out to be counter productive. It also further reinforces the mistaken assumption that ….”your health insurance is your health!” Bad thinking and bad health policy.

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