In The Blogs

Eating Their Own Dog Food

| Sun Nov. 22, 2009 2:53 PM PST

Last week I found myself talking about healthcare for a few minutes with a friend I hadn't seen in a while, and at one point she remarked sarcastically that if healthcare reform was such a great idea, why didn't Congress give itself whatever deal it was foisting on the rest of us? I mumbled some kind of lame reply, but little did I know that the Senate bill actually does this. Joe Klein explains:

My favorite provision requires that all members of Congress give up their federally-funded health care benefits and join the health care exchanges that will be set up by this bill. This is brilliant politics, addressing the tide of populist anger and fears of incipient socialism. But it also makes an important substantive point. The future of health care reform in this country will depend on how effectively the exchanges — health insurance super-stores — are working. If members of Congress have to participate in this system, you can bet they'll insist on a array of choices, similar to the system they currently use, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan.

There are actually a couple of ways you can look at this, and the pessimistic way is that if you make Congress buy insurance from the exchange then we'll never get any cost controls in place — because members of congress will never approve of anything that might infringe on their own perks of office.

But even I'm not quite that pessimistic. I think Klein is right: if this survives the conference report, and gets the publicity it deserves (why is this the first time I'm hearing about it?), it will actually go a long way toward assuaging public cynicism about both Congress and healthcare reform.

(And hey — why is this the first time I've heard about this? It's not as if I don't follow this stuff pretty closely. Was it added in by Harry Reid at the last second? Or what?)

UPDATE: Answer here!

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Kevin Drum is a political blogger for Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here.

Comments

First time I've heard about

Submitted by dcsusie on Sun Nov. 22, 2009 3:44 PM PST.

First time I've heard about it, too - please follow up, seems strange that MSM has not picked up on it, it's the type of thing they would notice. Would the govt. continue to pay its portion (about 75%) of the premium if purchased through the exchange?

Also, brings me to another question I have been wondering about - would premiums for policies through the exchange be tax deductible? Right now, even the employee portion of the FEHB premium is tax free though something called 'premium conversion" (but only for active employees, not retirees, which of course makes not sense at all, but whatever....) If even the employee portion became taxable, that would raise the cost by about 35%.

Jack Kennedy died today

Submitted by SteveHigh on Sun Nov. 22, 2009 5:38 PM PST.

He and his brothers gave their salary back to the Treasury. I wonder which Senators will give back their health care subsidies.

Because the Congresscritters

Submitted by MNPundit (not verified) on Sun Nov. 22, 2009 6:41 PM PST.

Because the Congresscritters themselves don't know about it, not most of them. So SHUT UP ABOUT IT or they will strip it out.

Umm, because you don't read

Submitted by scritic on Sun Nov. 22, 2009 8:15 PM PST.

Umm, because you don't read the bills, Kevin?

Facebook

Submitted by KathyF (not verified) on Sun Nov. 22, 2009 10:46 PM PST.

This was posted on my Facebook feed several days ago, and I immediately checked to see if this included all federal employees (it doesn't). Then we joked about how long it would last in the bill.

Perhaps that's why you didn't hear about it...you either don't go on Facebook or your friends are the wrong ones.

"because members of congress

Submitted by Art Eclectic on Sun Nov. 22, 2009 11:16 PM PST.

"because members of congress will never approve of anything that might infringe on their own perks of office."

That's your answer, right there. No one ~ NO ONE ~ ever wants to give up their sacred benefits for the greater good. If congress has to partake of the public option, it is dead before it hits the floor. You can't be having the elite mixing it up in the lab with the commoners, that would remove all the perks to being elite in the first place.

If congress can't get better benefits, they will vote themselves a better benefits package. It's like asking why the scorpion stings the frog en-route to the shore..it's just in their nature.

This was posted about pretty

Submitted by Adam Herman (not verified) on Mon Nov. 23, 2009 4:20 AM PST.

This was posted about pretty frequently on conservative blogs, and was introduced by Tom Coburn.

Reading more conservative and libertarian blogs(and not just reformed conservatives like Cole and Sullivan) would help keep you up on stories that are important but which liberals don't like to think about. Just as liberal blogs are important for conservatives to read because they cover stories and issues they don't like to think about.

Those poor Senate millionaires

Submitted by Nils (not verified) on Mon Nov. 23, 2009 5:33 AM PST.

The dirty secret is that most of the Senators can afford to "top off" their public health care with other insurance. Virtually all Senators are extremely wealthy (40% millionaires, 90% have a net worth of $100K+): http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/13/senators.finances/

email on "government run health care"

Submitted by Heather (not verified) on Mon Nov. 23, 2009 7:05 AM PST.

I got an email last week asking me to sign a petition to support this measure to force members of congress and their staffers to take sign up for "government run health care" that was being "forced" on the rest of us. It sounds populist and stupid to me. Coburn and his ilk only put it in to perpetuate the lie that the government is going to take over your health care (if only!!). As I said in my reply to the person who sent it...with this milque toast reform package, nobody is going to be forced into anything. If we're lucky we'll get a really weak public option.

The text of the email is below if you're really interested:

"On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a
two-page amendment courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn that would
require all Members and their staffs to enroll in any new
government-run health plan. It took me less than a minute to sign up
to require our congressmen and senators to drink at the same trough!
Three cheers for Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana!
Congressman John Fleming ( Louisiana physician) has proposed an
amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same
healthcare plan they force on us (under proposed legislation they are
curiously exempt). "

are extremely wealthy (40%

Submitted by mark robbins (not verified) on Mon Nov. 23, 2009 7:37 AM PST.

are extremely wealthy (40% millionaires, 90% have a net worth of $100K+): http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/13/senators.finances/

100k net worth is not extreme wealth. That's owning a home. A shitty home.

Not exactly

Submitted by DaveD (not verified) on Tue Nov. 24, 2009 5:38 AM PST.

"100k net worth is not extreme wealth. That's owning a home. A shitty home."

That's not quite true. That would be having 100K equity in a home of whatever value (assuming they had no other equities). And I believe that having 100K equity in their home would put them into a fairly elite category.