That Thing About Congress Being ‘Exempted’ from Obamacare? Huge Whopper Lie.

[kpete]

That Thing About Congress Being ‘Exempted’ from Obamacare? Huge Whopper Lie.
By Bob Cesca · October 02,2013 Print Friendly | 2193 Views


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Remember how Speaker Boehner was screaming on the House floor about the unfair congressional exemption from Obamacare? It turns out that Boehner worked extensively with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and other Democratic leaders to re-establish the government premium subsidy for Hill workers and members. In fact, according to Politico, Boehner and Reid collaborated to schedule a secret meeting at the White House to convince the president to re-establish the premium coverage. In the meantime, draft legislation was circulated to entirely repeal the marketplace requirement for Congress, but it was never shuffled beyond the planning stage.

Eventually, pressure from congressional Democrats convinced OPM to allow the rule — the so-called “exemption” — to be authorized.

The duplicity and dishonesty by the purveyors of this lie is astonishing, especially coming from the leader of the congressional Republicans. There is no congressional Obamacare “exemption.” There never was. In fact, Congress has to buy insurance via Obamacare. By law. And the rule that Boehner tried to contort into an “exemption” was a rule that he himself lobbied for, in cooperation with his nemesis in the Senate.

I don’t know if this whopper lie is in the same category as “death panels,” but, wow, it’s way up there.


the rest:
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/10/that-thing-about-congress-being-exempted-from-obamacare-huge-whopper-lie/

[Nye Bevan]

1. Yep. And unfortunately the lie is already around the world,

before the truth has got its pants on.

[leftstreet]

2. Well, the premium subsidy is basically an exemption

Obamacare attempts to change this dynamic. Under the law, health plans that cost over $10,200 for an individual or $27,500 for a family will have to pay an excise tax of 40 percent on every dollar that they exceed that cutoff beginning in 2018. As Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economics professor who helped design the law, explained to the New York Times, the tax is meant to reorient the way that employers approach their workers’ health problems and their associated costs. “It’s focusing employers on cost control, not slashing,” said Gruber.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/05/28/2064441/employers-obamacare-cut-wasteful-spending/

9: What is a “Cadillac Health Plan”?

The PPACA imposes a 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans. This new tax will apply to health plans valued in excess of $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. Those thresholds will grow annually by inflation plus 1 percent. The tax takes effect in 2018.
http://www.cpehr.com/affordable-care-act-obamacare-for-business

Congress to get Obamacare exemption

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/congress-to-get-obamacare-exemption-report-2013-08-02?dist=tcountdown


LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- The White House has approved a deal that will exempt members of Congress and their staff from some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, Politico reported late Thursday. Under the law, popularly referred to as Obamacare, lawmakers and their aides were required to source health insurance "created" by the law or offered through one of its exchanges, and without the subsidies they currently enjoy, the members of Congress would have faced thousands of dollars in additional premium payments each year, the report said. However, the Office of Personnel Management now plans to rule that the government can continue to make a contribution to the health-care premiums of the lawmakers and their staff, it said, citing unnamed congressional sources and a White House official.