Congress got an Obamacare waiver, and you should be outraged

President Obama and Congress worked together last week on an issue so important it united both parties around a common goal: avoiding Obamacare. Mr. Obama moved quickly, telling lawmakers that he would soon issue them their own special waiver.

At issue was a provision of Obamacare known as the Grassley Amendment that required members of Congress and their staffs to purchase health insurance on the law’s exchanges or a buy into a public option which was never created. The obvious intent of this provision was to force Congress to bear the same burden it would foist on the rest of us.

Democrats made little mention of the provision – after all how could they – because they were telling the country how great Obamacare would be. Mr. Obama famously claimed that if you like your health insurance you could keep it, nothing would change for you. Republicans saw it as just desserts for lawmakers eager to “reform” the health care system and possibly a bit of future leverage to repeal or amend the law.

Sadly, they were all wrong. Democrats were clamoring the loudest for a way out, fearing a brain-drain in Congress (already suffering a drought) as Obamacare’s high insurance costs drove talented staffers from the nation’s Capitol. Republicans were wrong that the pain of actually living with Obamacare would force Democrats to change the law. Mr. Obama was wrong that people who liked their insurance would be able to keep it.

The problem is that the law requires members of Congress and their staffs to go out and purchase these ultra-expensive Obamacare plans that none of them want. The obvious solution is to change the law so that insurance wasn’t so expensive. Perhaps relax the rules on what insurers must cover, thereby reducing cost, or repeal the individual mandate, or allow Health Savings Accounts to be sold on the exchanges.

Unfortunately, this is Congress we’re talking about, a place where the phrase “obvious solution” is an oxymoron. Instead, Congress asked Obama to do the only thing it could think of: exempt it from the law.

Mr. Obama can’t, of course, actually exempt Congress or anyone else from a law – he lacks the authority – but he can use your money to shield them from the consequences, which is exactly what he did.

Under this new arrangement, the government will pick up the lion’s share of the cost of whatever health plan Congress buys for itself and its employees on the exchanges, relieving them of the burden of a law they passed specifically to make them live with the burden of the law they passed.

Is Mr. Obama’s little scheme legal? Maybe. The Grassley Amendment doesn’t explicitly require members of Congress or their staffs to pay for the plans themselves, although that is clearly the amendment’s intent. The exchanges are supposed to be for individuals – large employers (like Congress) aren’t even allowed to buy plans there until 2017 and afterwards only at a state’s discretion – so it’s not clear if the federal government can even buy a plan on an exchange.

No matter, Mr. Obama has decreed that he will generously give Congress and its employees a subsidy to buy plans on the exchange, whether they should be getting one or not. Neat trick, huh?

This should outrage any American, whether they like Obamacare or not. See, you won’t be getting similar treatment. If you have to buy insurance on one of Mr. Obama’s exchanges you’re on your own. If you qualify for a federal subsidy you get assistance but if you don’t – and most won’t – too bad for you.

The law doesn’t say the government can subsidize the plans Congress has to buy off the exchanges, but that didn’t stop Mr. Obama. Strange that he isn’t trying to do the same thing for the millions of Americans he’s forcing to buy the very same plans. 

 

Matt Cover is Content Editor at Rare. Follow him on Twitter @MattCover

 

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