The new Aristocracy

[NightFox]

Congress has always felt that it should be exempt from law/ this is nothing new.

Where do the rest of us sign up to be exempt too?

 

[g5000]

If you're referring to the Exchange in my state, yeah one my co-workers did , more expensive , worse coverage (as of today the rates in my state are not finalized so it's based on proposed rates), not to mention that unless I want to break the law I wouldn't qualify since my employer does include health insurance as part of my compensation.

You are allowed to buy insurance through the exchange even if your employer offers it.

Not according to what I've been led to believe, I'm not by any means an expert on health insurance (I leave that up to my spouse) but given my income level and what my employer offers I wouldn't qualify and even if I did it would cost me much more out of pocket for something that's not as good, it would also mean that I'd essentially be just giving away part of my compensation. I think my company did a pretty good job of trying to balance everything (their costs and employee costs) but what it ends up being is that it costs both the company and the employees a lot more for less, that also means that since the company is paying more they have less cash to go around for salaries.

Definitely a lose-lose for everyone involved and I suspect I'm not alone in this position.

Everyone qualifies for insurance on the exchanges, so I do not know what you mean by "I wouldn't qualify". Everyone is allowed to purchase from the exchanges.

That opens up more options for you. You can stick with the insurance you have, if you have any at all (which many people do not), or you can select one of the variety of insurance plans on the exchanges. You can decide which is best for you.

Perhaps you are confused over the subsidies. There are premium support subsidies for families earning up to 400 percent above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). If you earn more than that, then you would not qualify for a subsidy. But you can still buy your insurance from the exchange.

People who are earning at or below the FPL will have their insurance entirely subsidized by the taxpayer. People earning just below 400 FPL will receive partial taxpayer support.

400 FPL is damn near $80,000. That's far above the national average income. That means most of the people who buy from the exchanges will be subsidized by the federal government! It's nuts.

The problem the congressional staffers are experiencing is that they are being ejected from their employer insurance and are being forced to by from the exchanges. Imagine how that would affect you, since you earn too much to get a federal subsidy.

You are getting a gigantic subsidy from your employer (or your spouse's employer) right now. If you were forced off the employer plan, that subsidy goes away and would not be replaced by a federal subsidy when you get insurance from the exchange. So that is a huge jump in cost.

That is what is happening to congressional staffers right now.

 

[FA_Q2]

Federal employees receive their health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. They have been for a long time.

The FEHBP premiums are employer-subsidized, just like any other employer-sponsored health insurance is. If you have employer-sponsored health insurance, you are receiving, on average, about a $12,000 tax free subsidy from your employer. It just so happens the employer of Congressional staffers is the American taxpayer. Their wages come from tax dollars, as does their employer's share of their health insurance premiums.

Understand? Tax dollars have been going to them for decades as part of their wages and benefits.

The problem is that there is no provision in ObamaCare for someone who switches from FEHBP to an insurance exchange to receive the same premium subsidy they have been receiving for decades. They only get a subsidy if their income is less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). And for a lot of them, that is not the case.

So they are not attempting to add some new cost to taxpayers. They are trying to maintain the same thing they have always gotten.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/us/politics/wrinkle-in-health-law-vexes-lawmakers-aides.html

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the nation’s largest employer-sponsored health insurance program, covers more than eight million people, including government employees and their family members. It offers dozens of competing plans and has been cited as a model by members of both parties.

In battles over the health care law in 2009-10, Republicans proposed a requirement for lawmakers and aides to join the exchanges, and Democrats accepted it.

So Congress is getting booted out of the FEHBP and must buy their insurance through the exchanges.

Bye-bye employer-sponsored (and thus subsidized) health insurance. Hello insurance exchange. That is a substantial jump in cost to each of them.

It would be like your own employer booting you off your company's health insurance and making you buy it from the exchange. If you earn more than 400 FPL, that would be a giant cost increase to you.

The point was not that they are taking something that they have not in the past. The problem is that they have created this problem with the new law and want to specifically exempt themselves from it. I can’t fathom how that does not seem wrong to you.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Ive been advocating a new revolution for a while. A spiritual revolution fought without firing a shot.

If we are going to change the path society is on, we need to change the path we are individuals and families are on. The problems of society are largely a result of failures of individuals as families.

It's time for us to do the work necessary to make things better.

We have a potential to be the greatest generation of Americans to have lived to this point. We also have the potential to be the last generation of Americans to live. Which would you prefer?

What does that non sequitur have to do with the OP?

 

[ScreamingEagle]

to get help with increasing healthcare costs due to Obamacare it appears you either got to be either poor or politically connected...

 

[g5000]

The point was not that they are taking something that they have not in the past. The problem is that they have created this problem with the new law and want to specifically exempt themselves from it. I can’t fathom how that does not seem wrong to you.

The Republicans demanded congressional staffers be made a special case to begin with. They demanded their staff be booted from their employer-sponsored health insurance.

Did they do that to anyone else in America?

Nope.


Do you have employer-sponsored health insurance? If so, you are receiving a gigantic financial benefit, tax free. You are getting a giant subsidy from your employer.

Now imagine how unbelievably pissed off you would be if the Republicans put a provision in ObamaCare that you were no longer allowed employer-sponsored insurance.

That's what the GOP did to their own workers. The people they employ.

So those workers are rightfully pissed off.

Those employees are not asking for special treatment. They were singled out for special punishment by the GOP.

I guarantee you that Republicans are seeing the error of their ways as much as Democrats are. They royally fucked over their employees for nothing other than naked political reasons.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

The point was not that they are taking something that they have not in the past. The problem is that they have created this problem with the new law and want to specifically exempt themselves from it. I can’t fathom how that does not seem wrong to you.

The Republicans demanded congressional staffers be made a special case to begin with. They demanded their staff be booted from their employer-sponsored health insurance.

Did they do that to anyone else in America?

Nope.


Do you have employer-sponsored health insurance? If so, you are receiving a gigantic financial benefit, tax free. You are getting a giant subsidy from your employer.

Now imagine how unbelievably pissed off you would be if the Republicans put a provision in ObamaCare that you were no longer allowed employer-sponsored insurance.

That's what the GOP did to their own workers. The people they employ.

So those workers are rightfully pissed off.

Those employees are not asking for special treatment. They were singled out for special punishment by the GOP.

I guarantee you that Republicans are seeing the error of their ways as much as Democrats are. They royally fucked over their employees for nothing other than naked political reasons.

why shouldn't GOVERNMENT employees be placed on GOVERNMENT healthcare.....?

 

[Caroljo]

So Congress keeps their existing Healthcare plan

That doesn't bother you? When they're forcing the rest of us to have something we don't want?

Have you been forced to give up your existing healthcare plan?

Not yet. We have over 250 employees where I work, 2/3rd are in the factory and a union. Their contract doesn't come up until 2016. Until then, we keep what we have. After, hard telling what happens.......I'm in the office, my husband is factory (in the union), we get basically the same thing as the factory right now. I carry the insurance. They can easily change our coverage in the office any time. But I doubt they will until the union contract comes up. Guess we wait and hope that Obamacare gets repealed!

 

[Caroljo]

So Congress keeps their existing Healthcare plan

That doesn't bother you? When they're forcing the rest of us to have something we don't want?

Individuals who have had private plans can keep those plans even if they do not meet the federal guidelines. I'm not sure how long you have to have had them, but my kids' policies are both grandfathered in, so as long as they keep paying on them, they can keep their current policies. Once the exchange is set up in my state, I can then compare to see if I want to keep them on the old policies or purchase a new one from the exchange.

Our plans are through the company I work for, they can change it any time they want.

 

[g5000]

The point was not that they are taking something that they have not in the past. The problem is that they have created this problem with the new law and want to specifically exempt themselves from it. I can’t fathom how that does not seem wrong to you.

The Republicans demanded congressional staffers be made a special case to begin with. They demanded their staff be booted from their employer-sponsored health insurance.

Did they do that to anyone else in America?

Nope.


Do you have employer-sponsored health insurance? If so, you are receiving a gigantic financial benefit, tax free. You are getting a giant subsidy from your employer.

Now imagine how unbelievably pissed off you would be if the Republicans put a provision in ObamaCare that you were no longer allowed employer-sponsored insurance.

That's what the GOP did to their own workers. The people they employ.

So those workers are rightfully pissed off.

Those employees are not asking for special treatment. They were singled out for special punishment by the GOP.

I guarantee you that Republicans are seeing the error of their ways as much as Democrats are. They royally fucked over their employees for nothing other than naked political reasons.

why shouldn't GOVERNMENT employees be placed on GOVERNMENT healthcare.....?

They have been. For a long time. They are enrolled in the FEHBP.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

The Republicans demanded congressional staffers be made a special case to begin with. They demanded their staff be booted from their employer-sponsored health insurance.

Did they do that to anyone else in America?

Nope.


Do you have employer-sponsored health insurance? If so, you are receiving a gigantic financial benefit, tax free. You are getting a giant subsidy from your employer.

Now imagine how unbelievably pissed off you would be if the Republicans put a provision in ObamaCare that you were no longer allowed employer-sponsored insurance.

That's what the GOP did to their own workers. The people they employ.

So those workers are rightfully pissed off.

Those employees are not asking for special treatment. They were singled out for special punishment by the GOP.

I guarantee you that Republicans are seeing the error of their ways as much as Democrats are. They royally fucked over their employees for nothing other than naked political reasons.

why shouldn't GOVERNMENT employees be placed on GOVERNMENT healthcare.....?

They have been. For a long time. They are enrolled in the FEHBP.

oh....so now there's TWO different government healthcare systems.....?

 

[g5000]

why shouldn't GOVERNMENT employees be placed on GOVERNMENT healthcare.....?

They have been. For a long time. They are enrolled in the FEHBP.

oh....so now there's TWO different government healthcare systems.....?

You mean to say you do not know there are more than that?

Tricare, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, VA, IHS, FEHBP...

 

[ScreamingEagle]

They have been. For a long time. They are enrolled in the FEHBP.

oh....so now there's TWO different government healthcare systems.....?

You mean to say you do not know there are more than that?

Tricare, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, VA, IHS, FEHBP...

All of them follow the rules under the same Obamacare system.....EXCEPT Congress & staffers....who seem to be operating under a different system with different rules....how do you explain that....?

Obamacare imposes two costs on members of Congress and their staff.

First, it kicks them out of their current health plans, leaving them to buy coverage on Obamacare’s health-insurance “exchanges.”

Second, it makes no provision for the federal government to keep paying $5,000 or $11,000 toward the cost of their insurance as the Treasury does today.

 

[g5000]

oh....so now there's TWO different government healthcare systems.....?

You mean to say you do not know there are more than that?

Tricare, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, VA, IHS, FEHBP...

All of them follow the rules under the same Obamacare system.....EXCEPT Congress & staffers....who seem to be operating under a different system with different rules....how do you explain that....?

I already did explain it. Several times in several topics about this same story. The GOP fucked over their employees. The GOP singled out their employees for special handling and ended up fucking them over in the process. It was the GOP which made them different from everyone else.

Now the employees are asking their bosses to stop singling them out and return them to being treated like everyone else.

I explained it very simply. Go back and read it again until you get it.

 

[g5000]

Most of you have employer-sponsored health insurance.

Senator McConnell's staff had employer-sponsored health insurance.

Employers who provide health insurance pay the bulk of the cost of that insurance. It is a big tax-free benefit worth over $10K a year each employee receives, whether they work for a corporation or for Mitch McConnell.

The Republicans decided to take away this benefit from all the Congressional employees. They are taking away that $10K-plus benefit. Got it? That's what happened before you heard about this story. That's the backstory many of you seem to be completely ignorant of.

At the same time, the GOP is FORCING their employees to change their health insurance. Again, before you heard about this.


Asking the GOP not to do that is NOT asking for something special. It is asking for the GOP to stop fucking them over.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

You mean to say you do not know there are more than that?

Tricare, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, VA, IHS, FEHBP...

All of them follow the rules under the same Obamacare system.....EXCEPT Congress & staffers....who seem to be operating under a different system with different rules....how do you explain that....?

I already did explain it. Several times in several topics about this same story. The GOP fucked over their employees. The GOP singled out their employees for special handling and ended up fucking them over in the process. It was the GOP which made them different from everyone else.

Now the employees are asking their bosses to stop singling them out and return them to being treated like everyone else.

I explained it very simply. Go back and read it again until you get it.

and you still don't get it....

afterall.....LOTS of employers are dropping their expensive healthcare plans and letting employees go pick up the tab and their healthcare at the exchanges....why should government workers be any different....? why should voters pay extra for staffers care when they have to pay more for their own...?

 

[g5000]

LOTS of employers are dropping their expensive healthcare plans and letting employees go pick up the tab and their healthcare at the exchanges

Evidence, please. I seriously doubt this is being done. Show me a list of commensurate employers who employ highly skilled workers who are dropping their full time workers from their health plan. Such employees would realize they are losing a $10K-plus benefit and would be bitching just as loudly as the Congressional staffers. And they would quit, just like the staffers will. An employer who needs highly skilled workers would be stupid if they did this, so I doubt you will find any.

Also, if an employer drops their employees, they will be fined for each employee who uses the exchanges.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

LOTS of employers are dropping their expensive healthcare plans and letting employees go pick up the tab and their healthcare at the exchanges

Evidence, please. I seriously doubt this is being done. Show me a list of commensurate employers who employ high skilled workers who are dropping their full time workers from their health plan. Such employees would realize they are losing a $10K-plus benefit and would be bitching just as loudly as the Congressional staffers. And they would quit, just like the staffers will. An employer who needs highly skilled workers would be stupid if they did this, so I doubt you will find any.

Also, if an employer drops their employees, they will be fined for each employee who uses the exchanges.

we won't see most results until Obamacare starts to kick in 2014 and beyond....(delayed for bigger companies) but we are seeing a definite trend toward part-time workers.....these workers will have to buy their own healthcare at the exchanges...

So far this year, the economy has added an average of over 100,000 part-time jobs per month while averaging only 32,000 full-time jobs per month.

Read more: AP Reluctantly 'Discovers' Trend Towards Part-Time and Lower-Paid Work ? Years Late | NewsBusters

if the Obamacare exchanges are good enough for hard-working Americans....why shouldn't they be good enough for Congressmen and their staffers.....?