That Congressional Exemption From Obamacare? Another Myth
“Why are Congress and their families exempt from the new plan?” a questioner named Paul asked in a recent Yahoo Finance Q&A on the Affordable Care Act. “If the coverage is inferior, why don’t they stand behind it?”
Of all the misconceptions surrounding the new health reform law known as Obamacare—and there are many—one of the newest and most infuriating is the idea that Congress made itself “exempt” from a law that puts onerous new burdens on many other Americans. That contention is totally false. In fact, members of Congress, along with their personal staffers, are required to participate in Obamacare, which is a more stringent requirement than employees of many big companies face.
The confusion is understandable. Earlier this year, Congress did, in fact, consider passing legislation that would amount to an exemption, though that never happened. Then, in August, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a speech that “President Obama just granted all of Congress an exception. And he did it because Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats who passed this thing came begging and said, ‘Please, please, please let us out of Obamacare.’” Nobody actually saw Harry Reid begging, but the claim gained traction nonetheless, and a chain email containing bogus information about Congress being exempt from Obamacare started to circulate.
Here’s what really happened. When the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, it included a passage that said: “The only health plans that the Federal Government may make available to Members of Congress and congressional staff … are (I) created under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act); or (II) offered through an Exchange established under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act).”
In plain English, that means that at the end of this year, members of Congress and their personal staffs will no longer be eligible for the federal health care plan, and they’ll have to purchase insurance through an exchange instead. That requirement was initially proposed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who opposed the law, as a kind of dare back in 2009, when legislators were still debating what would go in the bill. It caught on as a populist measure and made it into the final law.
Up until now, members of Congress, like all federal employees, have been able to select insurance from a government plan that’s similar to a lot of big-company plans, with one exception: It offers a lot more choices. In fact, the government plan, which has been in place for years, is remarkably similar to the exchanges established by the ACA.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/congressional-exemption-obamacare-another-myth-153149342.html
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