ObamaCare: Congressional membership has its privileges

While millions across the country are losing their health plans –  despite repeatedly being promised by the president that they could keep them – Congress and the Obama administration have been playing fast and loose with the rules to ensure that many on Capitol Hill won’t lose theirs. Under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA,...

While millions across the country are losing their health plans –  despite repeatedly being promised by the president that they could keep them – Congress and the Obama administration have been playing fast and loose with the rules to ensure that many on Capitol Hill won’t lose theirs.

Under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly known as ObamaCare, lawmakers and their staffs were to lose their group health benefits and be forced to purchase individual policies through the new insurance exchanges, where the only available subsidies are based on income. Losing employer health benefits was apparently too much for Congress, so instead, legislative staff will either receive premium subsidies for their health insurance in the small business health insurance exchange or they will be exempt from the exchanges altogether.

Oct. 31 is the deadline for members of Congress to decide exactly which special treatment they will employ to avoid being treated like ordinary Americans under ObamaCare. While ACA calls for members and their staffs to join the exchanges, the Office of Personnel Management has written rules that keep them from the having to live under the same rules as the people they represent.

Instead of going into the individual exchanges where individuals cannot receive employer subsidies, members and their staffs may go into the District of Columbia’s Health Link Exchange, which does allow employees to receive premium subsidies from their employees. Never mind the fact that the D.C. small business exchange is only available to employers with 50 or fewer full-time or full-time equivalent employees. This is just another example of Congressional privilege.

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.

While some members would like to keep their health insurance decisions for themselves and their staff private, it should be a matter of public record. As public employees, the salaries of congressional staffers are already a matter of public record.

Shouldn’t their health benefits be open for public inspection as well? After all, as taxpayers, we are footing the bill for these benefits – and we should know if our elected representatives in Congress believe that they should live under a different set of rules from us.