From the Columbus Dispatch…
GOP denies hypocrisy on health insurance
Monday, November 22, 2010
By Jonathan Riskind
WASHINGTON - Almost all Republicans who ran for Congress this fall vowed to try to repeal all or part of the health-care reform law, saying it sanctions too much government intrusion and doesn't do enough to lower costs.
But few of them have any problem with signing up for the federal health-care benefits due them as a member of Congress, saying the comparison with what they disparage as "Obamacare" is akin to apples and oranges.
An exception is Bill Johnson, a businessman from Poland in northeastern Ohio, who defeated Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson of St. Clairsville this month. The Republican is considering eschewing the taxpayer-subsidized federal health-care plan.
"I have not made a final decision, but I am leaning toward not taking it," Johnson told The Dispatch last week on Capitol Hill as he and other incoming members of Congress went through orientation classes and voted for party leaders.
But Johnson, who as a retired Air Force officer also has veterans health insurance available to him, seems to be in a minority among the new GOP House majority in drawing a comparison between criticizing the health-care reform law and participating in a congressional health plan.
The issue of whether GOP members who campaigned to repeal the health-care reform law should not take their federal health-insurance benefits came up last week when a newly elected House Republican, Andy Harris of Maryland, complained about freshmen lawmakers not being eligible for the federal plan until Feb. 1. Members of Congress are to be sworn in on Jan. 3.
That sparked a letter from a group of Democrats, including Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, to GOP congressional leaders arguing that Republicans who want to repeal the health-care reform law shouldn't accept federal health-insurance benefits.
Rep.-elect Bob Gibbs of Lakeville in northeastern Ohio, who unseated Democratic Rep. Zack Space of Dover, said it's an "apples to oranges" comparison to suggest that it is hypocritical to want to repeal the health-care overhaul law but sign on to a federal health plan while the law that Republicans love to hate remains in effect.
"When I call for repealing 'Obamacare,' it is because it is a disaster that is bankrupting the country (and) will erode services and doesn't do anything about escalating costs," Gibbs said.
Gibbs said that as a lawmaker, he will be buying into an employer-based plan, albeit one partially paid for by taxpayers. Gibbs said the plan he is signing up for, from a menu of private plans, will cost him nearly $200 a month for individual coverage. His children are grown, and his wife receives health-insurance coverage through her job.
The family version of his plan would include premium contributions of nearly $500 per month, he said.
Rep.-elect Steve Stivers, a Columbus Republican who defeated Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy of Columbus, noted that he did not campaign on repealing the health-care law, but rather on making changes to the parts he opposes.
Stivers said he will study a GOP "repeal-and-replace" bill before deciding whether to vote for it, but he, too, dismisses the idea that any criticism of the current law means that a lawmaker should not accept coverage by a federal plan.
Stivers might remain on a military health plan, but that is something that he and his wife will decide later, because he won't be eligible for the federal plan until Feb. 1.
Two current GOP lawmakers, Reps. Steve Austria of Beavercreek and Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township, also reject the idea that it's wrong to want to repeal the health-care law while participating in a federal plan.
"Like most federal employees, I pay the individual portion of my health-insurance coverage," Austria said. "And, like most Americans, I am not exempt from the mandates of this costly, ill-conceived, sweeping new health-care law."
Tiberi views the congressional plan he pays into as analogous to a private, employer-based plan, "and as an employee of the federal government, Congressman Tiberi will continue to pay for and receive federal health-care benefits, for himself and his family, just like other federal employees," said Breann Gonzalez, Tiberi's spokeswoman.
Wadsworth businessman Jim Renacci, who defeated Rep. John Boccieri, D-Alliance, "has not yet made any decisions regarding his health insurance," said Renacci spokesman James Slepian.
"That said ... comparing federal employee health benefits to 'Obamacare' is comparing apples to oranges," Slepian said. "Like 85 percent of all Americans, federal employees, including members of Congress, could purchase health insurance through private carriers long before 'Obamacare' was forced down our throats."
On the other side of the issue is Sen. Sherrod Brown. For years, dating to his time in the U.S. House, the Democrat from Avon didn't enroll in federal coverage, saying he wouldn't partake in any plan available to members of Congress while so many Americans lacked access to coverage. Earlier this year, however, he said that with the passage of the health-care reform bill that aims to extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, he will accept government health-care coverage. The subsidized plans extending most of that new coverage to Americans are to begin in 2014.
Democrat Ted Strickland, since entering Congress in 1993 and becoming governor in 2007, has paid for public health-insurance benefits himself. Strickland, who lost his re-election bid to Republican John Kasich on Nov. 2, and his wife paid $5,347 to the Ohio general fund last year to offset the cost of their federal health-care coverage.
Republicans will control the House next year and might well be able to pass a bill repealing the health-care law and possibly replacing it with something different. However, that would have little likelihood of being signed into law while Democrats hold a Senate majority and President Barack Obama is in the White House.
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