Andy Harris

GOPer Who Whined About Gov't Health Care Denied Committee Assignment

Brian Beutler | December 29, 2010, 9:31AM

Rep.-elect Andy Harris (R-MD)

Karma's something something.

Remember Rep.-elect Andy Harris (R-MD)? The anti-health care reform physician who got a heap of bad publicity when he made a fuss about having to wait a few weeks until his employer- (a.k.a. government-) provided health care kicked in? And who asked whether the government had a... public option, of sorts, from which he could buy insurance in the interim?

Turns out hubris has consequences.

According to The Daily Times, "The Maryland Republican didn't get his top choice for a committee assignment, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over public health issues."

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Health Care

Poll: Republicans Want Anti-HCR GOPers To Just Say No To Gov't Health Care

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 23, 2010, 2:12PM

Rep.-elect Andy Harris (R-MD)

Republicans and independents have decided that incoming members of Congress who ran against health care reform and still take their government-funded benefits are hypocrites. Democrats, not so much.

That's one conclusion from a new national poll from Democratic firm PPP, which shows big majorities of GOP and independent voters saying the politicians who ran against the health care reform law should forgo the health care benefits they're entitled to as employees of the federal government.

Just 28% of Republican respondents said that new anti-reform members should take their federal benefits, while a whopping 58% said they shouldn't. Among independents -- who voted for the GOP in big numbers on Nov. 2 -- 56% say politicians who made health care repeal a cornerstone of their campaigns should deny themselves their government benefits. Only 27% said they should take them.

The split is much narrower among Democrats, who presumably support the health care law and the idea of government-assisted health care in larger numbers. Forty percent of Democrats said that politicians who ran against the health care law should take their government care anyway, while 46% said they should decline it.

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Andy Harris

Progressives Target 'Dude, Where's My Health Care' GOPer (AUDIO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 22, 2010, 12:38PM

A progressive group is launching a multi-pronged attack on Rep.-elect Andy Harris, the freshly-elected Republican physician from Maryland who made headlines last week when he, essentially, asked Congressional staffers why he has to wait 28 days for his government health care.

Harris, who like many Republicans this year ran on repealing the landmark health care law signed by President Obama, is the subject of ridicule in a new radio ad being broadcast across his Maryland district by the progressive group Americans United for Change.

"What was the first thing Andy Harris did when he got to Washington?," the ad's narrator says. "Harris complained that he wasn't getting HIS new government-provided health care fast enough."

"Say what?" the narrator adds.

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Andy Harris

Study: Most Workers Have To Wait Longer For Health Insurance Than Congress

Brian Beutler | November 16, 2010, 4:04PM

Rep.-elect (and physician) Andy Harris (R-MD) stood up at an orientation of newly elected members, flabbergasted that he'd have to wait a month for his government-provided private health insurance to kick in.

"This is the only employer I've ever worked for where you don't get coverage the first day you are employed," he reportedly complained, outraged by the delay.

For a man of the people, that's a pretty impressive résumé. Most workers in this country have to wait weeks between their first day on the job and the day their health insurance kicks in. Sometimes more.

According to the 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation annual survey of employer-provided health benefits, most workers would be lucky to start a new job in Harris' shoes.

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2010 elections

Freshman GOPer: Hey, Where's My Health Care?

Josh Marshall | November 15, 2010, 11:14PM

Maryland physician Andy Harris (R) just soundly defeated Frank Kratovil, one of the most endangered Democrats on Capitol Hill going into the November election. And he did it in large part by railing against 'Obamacare' and pledging to repeal Health Care Reform. But when he showed on Capitol Hill today for an orientation for incoming members of Congress and their staffs, he had a different question: Where's my government health care?

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