Nothing to see here just Congress trying to exempt themselves from law that others might be subjected to – PB/TK
Republicans exempt their own insurance from their latest health care proposal – By Sarah Kliff April 26 2017
Republican legislators want to keep popular Obamacare provisions for themselves and their staff.
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 this 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
Continue to msn.com article: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republicans-exempt-their-own-insurance-from-their-latest-health-care-proposal/ar-BBAnqI1?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
