Politics Republicans exempt their own insurance from their latest health care proposal

House Republicans appear to have included a provision that exempts Members of Congress and their staff from their latest health care plan.

The new Republican amendment, introduced Tuesday night, would allow states to waive out of Obamacare’s ban on pre-existing conditions. This means that insurers could once again, under certain circumstances, charge sick people higher premiums than healthy people.

Republican legislators liked this policy well enough to offer it in a new amendment. They do not, however, seem to like it enough to have it apply to themselves and their staff. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) who authored this amendment confirmed this was the case: members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping these Obamacare regulations. Health law expert Tim Jost flagged me to this particular issue.

A bit of background is helpful here. Obamacare requires all members of Congress and their staff to purchase coverage on the individual market, just like Obamacare enrollees. The politics of that plank were simple enough, meant to demonstrate that if the coverage in this law were good enough for Americans than it should be good enough for their representations in Washington.

That’s been happening for the past four years now. Fast-forward to this new amendment, which would allow states to waive out of key Obamacare protections like the ban on pre-existing conditions or the requirement to cover things like maternity care and mental health services.

If Congressional aides lived in a state that decided to waive these protections, the aides who were sick could be vulnerable to higher premiums than the aides that are healthy. Their benefits package could get skimpier as Obamacare’s essential health benefits requirement may no longer apply either.

This apparently does not sound appealing because the Republican amendment includes the members of Congress and their staff as a protected group who cannot be affected by this amendment.

https://www.vox.com/2017/4/25/15429982/gop-exemption-ahca-amendment

 

Keep it as is and let it implode.

 

So mean old Obama forced congress to have Obamacare and now congress wants to keep it for only themselves.

Makes perfect sense.

 

Don't have to make it worse. Just don't have to prop it up with ever increasing tax dollars.

 

Fucking pathetic. No health care should come into affect if those who wrote are not confident enough in it to have it themselves. Enough of this, get rid of them all.

 

I think you tried that, that's how we got Trump.

Maybe instead try electing people who actually want to make things better?

What the hell do you have to lose?

barfo

 

If I'm parsing this correctly, you are a Bernie supporter who either voted for Trump out of spite, or didn't vote? And you think Trump is someone else's fault?

barfo

 

The previous 8 years gave us a generation of college graduates living in their parents' basements.

Why would anyone run on that legacy?

 

And likewise, all the old and sick people would move to states that don't opt out.
If you want to see the country split up further, I guess that's as good a plan as any.

barfo

 

People move to other states for favorable treatment by the government all the time. California is shedding population to Texas, and has for years - Texas has no state income tax.

Liberal New York State, with a liberal governor and state government, is advertising on TV all the tax breaks they offer to businesses to move there. Quite republican of them.

 

That's a little confusing. Where does this money that the Feds help with come from? The young and healthy. So how is that different than the current situation? Are you arguing that paying taxes to the government and having it shoulder healthcare costs is better than paying higher premiums to insurance companies? If so, let me introduce you to our little friend, single payer.

barfo