Wisconsin senator files lawsuit over congressional exemption from ObamaCare

Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is filing suit today “to make Congress live by the letter of the health-care law it imposed on the rest of America.” According to Johnson: “By arranging for me and other members of Congress and their staffs to receive benefits intentionally ruled out by the Patient Protection and Affordable...

Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is filing suit today “to make Congress live by the letter of the health-care law it imposed on the rest of America.”

According to Johnson: “By arranging for me and other members of Congress and their staffs to receive benefits intentionally ruled out by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the administration has exceeded its legal authority.”

Simply put, the Obama administration is unilaterally allowing members of Congress to live by a different set of rules than the citizens they represent. Given the higher premiums for many, the narrow provider networks of many plans, and the higher deductibles that many will endure, it is no surprise that many working on Capitol Hill would want out of this calamitous scheme. But the law is clear.

The ACA calls for members and their staffs to join the ObamaCare individual health insurance exchanges. But the Office of Personnel Management has written rules that essentially undo the law’s requirements, allowing members of Congress and their staffs to avoid the individual exchanges altogether and, instead, either enter the small business exchange where they can access premium subsidies that regular citizens can’t access or keep their Federal Employee Health Benefits Plans.

Instead of going to the individual exchanges where individuals cannot receive employer subsidies, members and their staffs are now going into the District of Columbia’s Health Link Exchange, which does allow employees to receive premium subsidies from their employers. But this exchange is supposed to be restricted to employers with 50 or fewer full-time or full-time equivalent employees, which is one example of the special treatment for the politicians who have forced millions into the ObamaCare exchanges but can avoid the ObamaCare experience themselves.

Members may also designate their staffers as “official office” or “official staff.” Official staff will not be required to go into the exchange and may continue to receive the lavish health plan and subsidized premiums of the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan.

Johnson explains that “The legal basis for our lawsuit (which I will file with a staff member, Brooke Ericson, as the other plaintiff) includes the fact that the OPM ruling forces me, as a member of Congress, to engage in activity that I believe violates the law. It also potentially alienates members of Congress from their constituents, since those constituents are witnessing members of Congress blatantly giving themselves and their staff special treatment.”

While this lawsuit may do seemingly little to undo ObamaCare’s most destructive provisions, it does send an important message to lawmakers who would prefer to not live under the same set of rules they impose upon us: If ObamaCare is good enough for the American people, it should be good enough for Congress.