Who paid for Norm Coleman’s knee surgery?

Not everyone who loses a job in January can opt to have knee surgery in May. But former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman did just that. Who paid for his May 15 operation?

Likely it was the U.S. Government (minus a deductible).

The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program, insurer to members of Congress and nine million other government workers, allows beneficiaries to extend coverage beyond the termination of their federal employment — Jan. 3, in Coleman’s case. (In such instances, former employees typically pay the standard copayment plus the employer’s share of the deductible.)

Arthroscopic knee surgery, which normally costs several thousand dollars, is listed as one of the treatments the FEHB covers. It’s meant to relieve pain that in Coleman’s case was aggravated by playing tennis, according to The Sleuth (a Washington Post blog that reported a sighting of Coleman on crutches last Thursday). Coleman’s enthusiasm for the sport apparently wasn’t enough to sway former tennis champ John McEnroe, who donates to Democratic rival Al Franken instead.

For almost a year, controversy has swirled around who pays for Coleman’s personal expenses — from his suits and his residences in Minnesota and Washington, D.C. to his legal costs to counter shady-donation allegations in lawsuits filed in Texas and Delaware.

As he awaits resolution of his court challenge to Franken’s win, Coleman has taken a job as a consultant to the Republican Jewish Coalition — a gig that presumably wouldn’t come with health benefits.

Unless, that is, the RJC agreed to pay the cost of arthroscopic knee surgery in their contract with Coleman. That’s unlikely, but perhaps not out of the question, considering how much the Washington, D.C.–based organization appreciates him — enough to have hosted a recent benefit dinner in Minneapolis in his honor.

That May 17 event, held at a Jewish community center, appears to have been the first occasion in which Coleman was seen in public using crutches — though not using religion as a crutch, as Jesse Ventura (who beat Coleman to become governor in 1998) once said.

Joint pain — and paying for surgery to relieve it  – is no joke. The weekend brought news of the death of musician Jay Bennett, 45, formerly of the band Wilco, who publicized his struggle to make a “downpayment” on surgery to replace a hip he injured while stage-diving in Minneapolis.