As President Obama barnstorms the country promoting his health care law, one audience very close to home is growing increasingly anxious about the financial implications of the new coverage: members of Congress and their personal staffs.
Under a wrinkle that dates back to enactment of the law, members of Congress and thousands of their aides are required to get their coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges. ...
In battles over the health care law in 2009-10, Republicans proposed a requirement for lawmakers and aides to join the exchanges, and Democrats accepted it.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who proposed an early version of the idea, said he wanted to make sure that “members of Congress and Congressional staff get their employer-based health insurance through the same exchanges as our constituents.”
It has been a headache for many in Congress ever since. ...
[A] House Democrat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “This was a stupid provision that never should have gotten into the law.”...
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Congress Horrified at Prospect of Being Forced into ObamaCare Exchanges
This is from Robert Pear at the NY Times:
I guess stupid ideas are okay for the American people - just not for congress.
