Congress' own healthcare benefits: Membership has its privileges

[meme]

this is for the PEOPLE who lord over us..and the Democrats just struck down an amendment that was asked to put in the Hugo health care takeover, that they include themselves in the plan they are proposing for us peons..

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Lawmakers can choose among several plans and get special treatment at federal medical facilities. In 2008, taxpayers spent about $15 billion to insure 8.5 million federal workers and their dependents.
By Mark Z. Barabak and Faye Fiore
August 2, 2009
Too much, too fast, too expensive. Those are some of the objections lawmakers have voiced against the healthcare overhaul Democrats are attempting on Capitol Hill.

But many Americans think Congress is out of touch. How, they wonder, can lawmakers empathize with the underinsured or those lacking insurance when they receive a benefits package -- heavily subsidized by taxpayers -- that most of us can only envy?
Among the advantages: a choice of 10 healthcare plans that provide access to a national network of doctors, as well as several HMOs that serve each member's home state. By contrast, 85% of private companies offering health coverage provide their employees one type of plan -- take it or leave it.

Lawmakers also get special treatment at Washington's federal medical facilities and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers.

In all, taxpayers spent about $15 billion last year to insure 8.5 million federal workers and their dependents, including postal service employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Generous plans are available in private industry. But the federal coverage far surpasses that enjoyed by 70 million Americans who are underinsured and at financial risk in the event of a major health crisis -- not to mention the estimated 46 million who have no medical insurance.

the whole article here...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-congress-benefits2-2009aug02,0,7524121.story

 

[Cancel4]

If you don't like your health care coverage or you don't have any insurance at all, you'll have a chance, under what we've proposed, to take part in what we're calling a Health Insurance Exchange.

This exchange will allow you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose a plan that's best for you and your family; the same way, by the way, that federal employees can do, from a postal worker to a member of Congress. You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package.

Again, this is for people who aren't happy with their current plan. If you like what you're getting, keep it. Nobody is forcing you to shift. But if you're not, this gives you some new options. And I believe one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that we can force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.

If we fail to act, premiums will climb higher, benefits will erode further, the rolls of the uninsured will swell to include millions more Americans.

If we fail to act, one out of every five dollars we earn will be spent on health care within a decade, and in 30 years, it will be about one out of every three, a trend that will mean lost jobs, lower take-home pay, shuttered businesses, and a lower standard of living for all.

If we fail to act, federal spending on Medicaid and Medicare will grow over the coming decades by an amount almost equal to the amount our government currently spends on our nation's defense. It will, in fact, eventually grow larger than what our government spends on anything else today. It's a scenario that will swamp our federal and state budgets, and impose a vicious choice of either unprecedented tax hikes, or overwhelming deficits, or drastic cuts in our federal and state budgets.

The alternative to reform is a world where health care costs grow at an unsustainable rate.

 

[christiefan915]

this is for the PEOPLE who lord over us..and the Democrats just struck down an amendment that was asked to put in the Hugo health care takeover, that they include themselves in the plan they are proposing for us peons..


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the whole article here...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-congress-benefits2-2009aug02,0,7524121.story

Yep, Congress has always enjoyed better benefits than the peons, and not just since Obama took office.

Here's one (D)rep who turned down the coverage and he has to fight the system like most of us. Why do people have to bargain over the cost of their care, and how can they succeed at it? Because it's overpriced from the beginning?

From your article:

But Rep. Steve Kagen, for one, is skeptical.

The Wisconsin Democrat has refused to accept federal healthcare benefits, making him the only member of Congress to do without. He will continue, he said in an interview, until every American can enjoy the same coverage as federal lawmakers.

Kagen recently had knee surgery, writing checks for more than $4,500 after bargaining for a reduced-rate MRI and a 50% discount on the operation. (He is still dickering over the hospital bill.)

 

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If the goal of the obstructionists was to convince the voters that the shrinking Republican base is comprised of selfish, compassionless assholes, mission accomplished.