WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, introduced legislation Thursday that would require President Barack Obama and his cabinet to use the health care exchanges being created under the Affordable Care Act to help people purchase affordable insurance. He offered his bill following news reports of behind-the-scenes discussions about exempting Congress and their staffs from a requirement that they...
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, introduced legislation Thursday that would require President Barack Obama and his cabinet to use the health care exchanges being created under the Affordable Care Act to help people purchase affordable insurance.
He offered his bill following news reports of behind-the-scenes discussions about exempting Congress and their staffs from a requirement that they use the health care exchanges, where Americans who meet income standards will qualify for tax credits to help them purchase private insurance.
Cassidy is making his opposition to the 2010 health overhaul legislation a centerpiece of his campaign to unseat Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who voted for the legislation. The two will square off in the 2014 Louisiana Senate race.
Because of a Republican amendment adopted by Congress, congressional members and their staffs will be required to get their insurance from the health exchanges, which are to begin operation in 2014. Though the exchanges are being set up to help people buy affordable coverage, the amendment's sponsor, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Congress should be treated the same way as those seeking coverage through the exchanges.
There was no similar requirement for the president and his cabinet.
Cassidy spokesman John Cummins said his boss would oppose any proposal to eliminate the exchange requirement for congressional members and their staffs.
"As long as the American people have to suffer with the exchanges, the members of Congress who represent them should as well," Cummins said. Critics of the exchanges question whether the exchanges will be ready to begin offering insurance, as scheduled, in 2014, and predict that they won't offer quality insurance products or an efficient shopping experience.
Cassidy said he is calling his bill the "In it All Together Act" and his news release focuses on President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is tasked with implementing the law.
"President Obama and Secretary Sebelius forced ObamaCare on the American people," Cassidy said. "My staff and I are prepared to go on the exchanges, as bad as they might be, because that's what many Americans will have to do."
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, which supports the Affordable Care Act, said Cassidy and some of his colleagues have spent the last three years criticizing the Affordable Care Act and trying unsuccessfully to repeal the law.
"This (new Cassidy) bill has no substantive purpose to it other than to grandstand," Pollack said. "I think if Congressman Cassidy was serious about trying to protect health care for his constituents he would focus on practical pieces of legislation to achieve that rather than grandstand in a way that has no benefit for the people he represents."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has refused to implement a key element of the Affordable Care Act, an expansion of Medicaid eligibility that would provide health coverage for 214,000 low-income uninsured Louisiana residents, according to his administration. Though the federal government would pick up 100 percent of the cost for the first three years of the program, which begins in 2014, and no less than 90 percent after that, Jindal warns the costs ultimately will impose a big drain on the state budget and make too many state residents dependent on government for health care.,
Proponents of the Medicaid expansion points to a recently released report by the nonpartisan Louisiana Legislative Fiscal Office that estimated the state would save between $532 million and $544 million over the first five years of the expansion and between $185 million and $410 million over 10 years."
Cassidy has defended Jindal's decision not to participate in the Medicaid expansion, while Landrieu has accused the governor of playing politics and, in the process, denying health coverage to several hundred thousand residents who need it.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is trying to amend pending Senate legislation to allow states to collect sales taxes from online merchants with a similar requirement for Obama administration officials to participate in the health exchanges.
Some members of Congress have said the Grassley amendment would still allow members of Congress, and their staffers, to use their federal health benfits to purchase insurance on the exchanges. The White House said the law won't allow them to get insurance, as they do now, directly from the insurance providers that offer coverage to federal employees.
"Members of Congress won't receive anything that isn't available to the public," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. "The law doesn't allow them to get insurance from FEHB (the federal health insurance system). They are going to get insurance on the market place, just like individuals, uninsured and small businesses."