By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Congress has partially
wriggled free from the “Obamacare” health reforms that it passed
and subjected itself to three years ago.
In a ruling issued on Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers and their
staffs will continue to receive a federal contribution toward
the health insurance that they must purchased through
soon-to-open exchanges created by President Barack Obama’s
signature healthcare law.
The decision by the Office of Personnel Management, with
Obama’s blessing, will prevent the largely unintended loss of
healthcare benefits for 535 members of the Senate and House of
Representatives and thousands of Capitol Hill staff.
When Congress passed the health reform law known as
“Obamacare” in 2010, an amendment required that lawmakers and
their staff members purchase health insurance through the online
exchanges that the law created. They would lose generous
coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
The amendment’s author, Republican Senator Charles Grassley,
argued that if Obamacare plans were good enough for the American
public, they were good enough for Congress. Democrats, eager to
pass the reforms, went along with it.
But it soon became apparent the provision contained no
language that allowed federal contributions toward their health
plans that cover about 75 percent of the premium costs.
This caused fears that staff would suddenly face sharply
higher healthcare costs and leave federal service, causing a
“brain drain” on Capitol Hill.
But Wednesday’s ruling from the OPM, the federal
government’s human resources agency, means that Congress will
not have to fully live with the reform language that it created
– just as Republicans are trying frantically to delay or defund
the program.
The OPM said the federal contributions will be allowed to
continue for plans purchased on the new online health insurance
exchanges, ensuring that Capitol Hill employees will effectively
get the same health contributions as millions of other federal
employees who are not being thrown onto the exchanges.
STILL MUST PURCHASE PLANS
“These proposed regulations implement the administrative
aspects of switching members of Congress and congressional staff
to their new insurance plans – the same plans available to
millions of Americans through the new exchanges,” Jon Foley, OPM
Director of Planning and Policy, said in a statement.
Lawmakers and staff still must purchase plans on the
exchanges for coverage that starts in January, OPM said, and
they will not be eligible for tax credits to offset premium
payments. These credits are the main federal subsidy mechanism
for all other health plans purchased through Obamacare exchanges
due to open in October. These tax subsidies fall off quickly as
income rises.
Tim Jost, a healthcare law expert at Washington and Lee
University in Lexington, Virginia, said it was probably never
Congress’ intention to take away federal benefit contributions
from Capitol Hill employees, just to push them into them into
the exchanges.
There is nothing in the health law that prohibits private
companies from contributing to employee health insurance
premiums for plans purchased on the health exchanges, Jost said.
“This clarifies what they really intended to do all along,”
Jost said. “Congress had subjected itself to a requirement that
applied to nobody else in the country.”
But the OPM ruling has been caught up in the rising din of
political rhetoric over Obamacare as the launch of the health
exchanges nears in October. The exchanges are key to the law’s
core requirement that uninsured Americans obtain health coverage
or face a tax penalty.
A recent one-year delay in a requirement for larger
employers to offer health coverage has sparked a new wave of
Republican anger at the reforms and fueled efforts to delay or
de-fund them.
Republican Senator John Cornyn last week called relief for
Capitol Hill employees “an outrageous exemption for Congress” in
a Twitter message as news reports of the effort to find a
solution to the problem began to surface.
Cornyn, like most Republicans, wants to halt the Obamacare
reforms. However, he has stopped short of endorsing a call by
Republican Senators Ted Cruz, a fellow Texan, and Marco Rubio of
Florida to threaten a government shutdown by opposing funding
legislation in September if it contains any money for Obamacare.
(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Bill Trott)
