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Congress experiences Obamacare... differently
By Ana Radelat Tuesday, December 3, 2013 CTMirror.org
Washington
-- Republicans trying to block the Affordable Care Act put a provision in
the bill aimed at embarrassing its Democratic supporters by requiring lawmakers
and their staff to drop their federal health plans for one purchased on a state
exchange.
Republicans
said they wanted ACA supporters to “feel the pain” they say
other Americans feel when they buy health plans on those exchanges.
But members
of Congress and their staffs – even those who work in their home states and not
Washington --
are having a completely different experience than anyone else who buys
insurance on an exchange. In part that’s because the exchanges were
created by the ACA to help cover the uninsured and underinsured, not
well-insured government workers.
Beginning
Nov. 11, when enrollment opened for federal workers, members of Congress and
their staffs were required to choose a plan from the District of Columbia exchange, DC Health
Link.
They
have 112 plans to choose from using the DC Health Link’s offerings for
small businesses. Most shoppers on state exchanges have far fewer
choices. Connecticut’s exchange, Access Health CT, offers 26 plans.
Last week,
President Obama announced a one-year delay of online enrollment for small
businesses looking to buy health coverage through federal Obamacare
exchanges. But the District of Columbia
exchange and Connecticut's
exchange are able to sign up small businesses.
In addition,
if lawmakers and staff want to continue to receive help paying their premiums
from the federal government, they must buy a “gold” plan, the most expensive
and comprehensive plans on the exchange. Most Americans can afford only
the less expensive “bronze” or “silver” plans.
To help buy
these gold plans, members of Congress and their staff will continue to receive
the employer match they now get under the Federal Employee Health Benefits
Program, the plan offered to anyone who works on Capitol Hill and throughout
the federal government. The average match is about 70 percent, which means
members of Congress and their staffs pay about 30 percent of their premiums.
Even with the ACA’s subsidies to Americans with
modest incomes, most shoppers on state exchanges aren’t receiving that
kind of premium break.
The angry Republican
This has
enraged many conservative Republicans, most notably Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, who argues
that the employee contribution spares members of Congress from what the
Republicans say is the “unaffordability” of the ACA.
Vitter has filibustered nearly every bill considered in the Senate lately,
demanding consideration of his amendment that would eliminate the federal
contribution that helps lawmakers and their staffers buy health insurance.
“It’s
amazing to me, and it makes it very clear how determined they are to protect
the political elite in Washington,”
Vitter said of Democrats’ opposition to his amendment.
But John Hudak, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the
Vitter amendment would affect only the most vulnerable on Capitol Hill.
Taking away
the federal contribution “hurts junior staffers making $30,000 a year because
members of Congress can afford to pay for health care out of their own
pockets,” Hudak said.
Connecticut delegation
Sen. Richard
Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, are unaffected by
the provision in the Affordable Care Act aimed at Congress because they are
enrolled in Medicare. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5th
District, is covered under her husband’s state of Connecticut plan. Daniel Esty
is commissioner of the state Department of Energy & Environmental
Protection.
The rest of
the delegation had not signed up as of last week, but lawmakers must do so
by Dec. 9, when their open enrollment ends. (In Connecticut, the deadline is Dec. 23 to sign
up through the exchange for a plan that starts Jan. 1. Those who want to sign
up for a plan through the exchange that would go into effect later in 2014 have
until March 31 to do so.)
Edmund Skowronek, a spokesman for Larson who works in a 1st
District office, said he has “gone on the website and checked the options,” but
has not yet selected a plan.
Hudak said Republican criticisms that members
of Congress are still exempt from the ACA is unfair. In fact, they are
the only ones required to purchase their coverage from an exchange. Everyone
else can choose to buy insurance from an exchange -- where they may qualify for
subsidies or federal help in paying for copays and
deductible -- or outside the exchange. And the ACA prohibits all other large
employers like the federal government from buying insurance for their employees
through the exchange.
“Congress is
not exempt, it is actually forced to use an exchange in a way those working for
other large employers can’t,” Hudak said.
OPM
Conservatives,
who insist members of Congress are still “exempt” from the ACA, have focused
much of their ire on the Office of Personnel Management, which set up the
system for Capital Hill to sign up for health insurance. The OPM determined
that the ACA required lawmakers and their staff to sign up on an exchange, but
it said nothing about the employer match.
John
O’Brien, director of health care at the OPM, said the gold offerings on the DC
Health Link’s small business plans were closest to those offered in the Federal
Employee Health Benefits Program. The federal program, with its 200-plus plans,
will still cover federal civil service workers.
Another difference
is that under the FEHBP program, premiums were the same for everyone who chose
the same plan. In the exchange, premiums are based in part on a person’s age.
That means older members of Congress and congressional staff will pay more than
younger ones for the same plan.
DC Health
Link has had its share of computer problems, but far fewer glitches than the
disaster-prone federal exchange 34 states are using.
Still, House
Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, complained that he could not register for
a new health plan.
“Despite
multiple attempts, I was unable to get past that point and sign up for a health
plan," Boehner wrote on his official blog. "We've got a call into the
help desk. Guess I'll just have to keep trying."
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/2013/12/03/congress-experiences-obamacare-differently