The Health Care That Members of Congress Get

[babylonsister]

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/06/24/the-health-care-that-members-of-congress-get/

The Health Care That Members of Congress Get
Posted by Karen Tumulty


One of the great rallying cries we hear in the health care debate--including from President Obama--is that everyone should get coverage that is at least as good as what members of Congress get. How good is that? John Fritze at USA Today takes a look:

Like millions of employees, lawmakers choose from a range of private insurers. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management does not track how many members of Congress enroll in individual plans, but a Blue Cross Blue Shield preferred provider organization (PPO) is the most popular for all federal employees, according to the agency.

That Blue Cross plan scored well in an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. The report found the federal plan had lower deductibles and co-pays than "typical" PPOs but did not rate as well as an average health maintenance organization (HMO). Most people insured through work, 58%, are in PPOs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Roland McDevitt, director of health care research for consulting firm Watson Wyatt, which performed the analysis in the report, called the federal plan "slightly more generous."

A Kaiser survey found the average PPO premium for individual coverage was $4,802 in 2008. For a family, the premium was $12,937. The federal plan's premiums were higher ($5,386) for individuals but lower ($12,335) for families, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

The government paid 69% of that premium for a family, less than the 73% average.

"These aren't the wonderful, exemplary plans ... that many people think they are," said Jon Gabel of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. "They are not the Cadillac plans."

Lawmakers can also utilize taxpayer-subsidized care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had bypass surgery at Bethesda in 2003. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., battled cancer last year with treatments received at both sites.

Pete Sepp, a spokesman with the National Taxpayers Union and an expert on benefits received by members of Congress, questioned whether those additional perks skew how lawmakers look at health care.

"It sure can't help their perception of what the average consumer has to deal with," he said.

So how does that stack up with what you've got?

[yy4me]

1. Now that I am both widowed and unemployed and get just one

Social Security check to survive on, I don't know how I stack up against others. Where I used to work, my employer paid the supplement to Medicare Part B as a benefit(there were no other bene's). Lost job, lost supplement.

Household income went from 2 SS checks and 1 paycheck down to 1 SS check after my husband died and I was laid off.

I cannot afford the Part B supplement nor can I afford to buy drug coverage.

How do I stack up? Let me just say that if I get sick I'm doomed because of the 20% co-pays and deductibles for hospital and doctor fees. Major health event and I'm sunk.

I have to save 25% of my monthly check for just Real Estate taxes. Doesn't leave much for the general costs we all face, like living day to day.

Check comes, bills paid, nothing left. I am not happy about any of it, but then, who is?

[Vinca]

2. It's a million percent better than what I've got.

Because I've got nothing. Cherry-picked out of the system (as if I could afford it) and 5 years away from Medicare.