ObamaCare: Politicians living by the same set of rules gaining support

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has filed suit in federal court “to make Congress live by the letter of the health-care law it imposed on the rest of America.” He now has support from dozens of his Congressional colleagues, as well as a growing number of supporters across the country, to make congressmen participate...

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has filed suit in federal court “to make Congress live by the letter of the health-care law it imposed on the rest of America.” He now has support from dozens of his Congressional colleagues, as well as a growing number of supporters across the country, to make congressmen participate in the ObamaCare individual exchange without the lavish taxpayer-funded health insurance premium subsidies they continue to enjoy.

The Obama administration unilaterally allowed members of Congress to live by a different set of rules than the citizens they represent when it passed the Affordable Care Act, or ACA.The ACA calls on members and their staffs to join the ObamaCare individual health insurance exchanges, but the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, has written rules that essentially undo the law’s requirements.

In the individual health insurance exchanges, lawmakers would not be able to continue to receive subsidies that pay for much of their health insurance premiums. Because of the special OPM rule, lawmakers could enroll in the small business exchange, which is supposed to be restricted to employers with 50 or fewer employees, as a way of getting around the law.

By enrolling in the District of Columbia’s Health Link Exchange, lawmakers can continue to receive the generous premium subsidies that are not allowed in the individual exchanges. This is one example of the special treatment for the politicians who have forced millions into the ObamaCare exchanges but have found a way to avoid the ObamaCare experience for themselves.

Johnson said:

“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.”

Americans should remind lawmakers that if it is good enough for the American people, then it is good enough for the people who work for them. And someone should also remind congressional lawmakers that, if they liked their health care plan and wanted to keep it, they should have read what was in the law before passing it.