Politics

GOP senators plan to prevent special treatment for Congress under Obamacare

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Two Republican senators have joined the fight against the Obamacare “fix” for Congress.

GOP lawmakers in the House are already planning to introduce legislation that would prevent members of Congress from receiving health care subsidies under Obamacare. That legislation comes on the heels of an Office of Personnel Management decision that would allow members and Congressional staff to keep their generous government contributions to healthcare costs after the Obamacare exchanges are in place.

On Tuesday, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi announced that they will also introduce legislation in September to prevent the Office of Personnel Management’s decision from taking effect.

“If Obamacare is good enough for the American people, it should be good enough for Congress, the President and Vice President, and other policy makers in Washington,” Enzi said in a statement.

The pair’s legislation would require all members of Congress, the president, vice president, and political appointees to purchase health insurance on the exchanges without the taxpayer-funded government contributions.

Additionally, congressional staff would not be able to get a government contribution that is greater than what they would receive if they worked elsewhere.

“These recent maneuverings inside the beltway are precisely why the American people rightly despise Congress,” Vitter added. “Our legislation gets right to the core of the OPM ‘fix’ for Washington.”

Some worried that talented staffers would leave Congress unless they continued to receive healthcare subsidies under Obamacare.

In addition to ending the subsidy for elected officials and appointees, and limiting the contributions to staff health care, the Vitter and Enzi’s bill would also clarify that members of Congress do not have the authority to exempt any of their staffers from purchasing healthcare on the exchanges.

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