Health Care Bill May Exempt Top Hill Staffers! Hmm, Didn't President Obama Say That We Would Now Have What They Have? Washington's Plan Remains Separate From The New Public Exchanges!

"ObamaCare exempts top Congressional staff. If ObamaCare is so good, why are the people who wrote the legislation exempting themselves?" by Ben H. [Great question!]

Politico

Health bill may exempt top Hill staffers

written by Erika Lovley and Patrick O'Connor

Tuesday March 23, 2010 7:48pm EDT

The health care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama Tuesday requires members of Congress and their office staffs to buy insurance through the state-run exchanges it creates – but it may exempt staffers who work for congressional committees or for party leaders in the House and Senate.

Staffers and members on both sides of the aisle call it an “inequity” and an “outrage” – a loophole that exempts the staffers most involved in writing and passing the bill from one of its key requirements.

The bill requires “congressional staff” to buy insurance from the exchanges – with a stipend from the Office of Personnel Management But page 158 of the bill defines “congressional staff” narrowly, as “employees employed by the official office of a member of congress, whether in the district office or in Washington.”

The Congressional Research Service believes a court could rule that the legislation "would exclude professional committee staff, joint committee staff, some shared staff, as well as potentially those staff employed by leadership offices.”

If that’s so, staffers who work for Nancy Pelosi in her capacity as representative from California would go into the exchange program, while staffers who work for her in her capacity as speaker would stay on the government’s plan. Other Capitol employees, like those who work for the Clerk of the House or the House Historian, would be similarly exempted.

Republican Senators Sens. Tom Coburn and Chuck Grassley, who both say they tried to correct the issue last year, are firing at Senate leadership, saying that Democrats purposely exempted upper-level staffers out of the bill.

Last September, the Senate Finance Committee adopted a Grassley amendment into its version of the bill, mandating that members of Congress and their staff get their health insurance through the exchanges. It was agreed to by unanimous consent.

Coburn had earlier filed a similar amendment in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which passed with some Democratic support.

However, when the combined Senate bill came to the floor, the definition of staff had been narrowed. Both senators filed a second amendment in December restating their original intent, but they say Democrats blocked it.

“The American people will be appalled to learn the health care bill exempts leadership and committee staff. This special deal for unelected staff underscores everything the public detests about the arrogance of power in Washington,” Coburn said. “I tried to fix this inequity along with senators Grassley, Burr and Vitter, but Majority Leader [Harry] Reid obstructed our effort.”