Republicans LOVE ObamaCare so much, they're gonna keep it... for them !

[Johan]

Republicans exempt their own insurance from their latest health care proposal


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 preexisting 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-NJ), who authored this amendment, confirmed this was the case: Members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping these Obamacare regulations. Health law expert Tim Jost flagged this particular issue to me.

A bit of background is helpful here. Obamacare requires all members of Congress and their staff to purchase coverage through the health law’s marketplace, 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, it should be good enough for their representatives in Washington.
That’s been happening for the past four years now. Fast-forward to this new amendment, which would allow states to waive out of key Obamacare protections like the ban on preexisting conditions or the requirement to cover things like maternity care and mental health services.
If congressional aides lived in a state that decided to waive these protections, the aides who were sick could presumably be vulnerable to higher premiums than the aides who are healthy. Their benefits package could get skimpier as Obamacare’s essential health benefits requirement may no longer apply either.

This apparently does not sound appealing, because the Republican amendment includes the members of Congress and their staff as a protected group who cannot be affected by this amendment’s terms.

You can see it on the sixth page of the amendment, although it is admittedly hard to spot. The Obamacare section that requires legislators to buy on the marketplace is section 1312(d)(3)(D). And if you look at the Republican amendment, and the list of who cannot be included in this waiver? It includes Section 1312(d)(3)(D).

http://www.vox.com/2017/4/25/15429982/gop-exemption-ahca-amendment


ObamaCare : Terrible for the country but good enough for congressmen and their staff...

 

[Supafly]

Of course they want to keep it for themselves. Fuck the voters, if you want to actually get something from the GOP, be a multi-millionaire donor, or get lost.

 

[Rattrap]

It was always obvious that the Republican opposition to Obamacare had nothing to do with "the good of the country", but to oppose Obama. This is simply another confirmation of that.

And before the predictable responses of how bad Obamacare is/how it's collapsing under its own weight/etc: Not relevant to this hyprocisy, or my point above.

 

[Jack Davenport]

*I've often wondered® why people care about this. Obamacare is collapsing under its own weight. The Republicans are being completely consistent on this issue.