WaPo on Obamacare: "Deluge" of new rules coming

The Washington Post reports on the "deluge" of new regulation rolling out of federal agencies now that we are past the election:

With the national health law’s political future now entrenched, a deluge of new rules is expected in the coming days and weeks as the Obama administration fleshes out the law’s complex components.

Most of the anticipation has been focused on rules that determine how the new state-based insurance marketplaces called exchanges will operate. But also closely awaited are decisions about how the government will tax medical devices, allot the shrinking pool of money for hospitals that treat the uninsured, and determine how birth control insurance coverage can be guaranteed for employees of religious schools, universities and charities.

“We knew right after the election, this is all coming out,” said Blair Childs, an executive at the Premier health alliance, which advises hospitals.

Lest there be any confusion, the United States Congress, in its drafting of the Affordable Care Act, abdicated the details to the regulatory agencies (and particularly the Department of Health and Human Services), denying voters the ability to hold their representatives accountable for any particular requirement of the law. The executive branch then deliberately withheld draft regulations past the election and long past the deadlines set by Congress so that voters could not react at the ballot box. Those are the facts, and they should concern anybody who believes that government ought to be accountable to the people.