Republicans Use Health Care And Tax Law To Help Themselves

Previously Republicans wanted to have members of Congress be included in the exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act. Now that the Republicans are trying to repeal and replace Obamacare, Republican members of Congress are fighting to keep the benefits of Obamacare for themselves. Vox reports:

The new Republican amendment, introduced Tuesday night, would allow states to waive out of Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions. This means that insurers could once again, under certain circumstances, charge sick people higher premiums than healthy people.

Republican legislators liked this policy well enough to offer it in a new amendment. They do not, however, seem to like it enough to have it apply to themselves and their staff. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), who authored this amendment, confirmed this was the case: Members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping these Obamacare regulations. Health law expert Tim Jost flagged this particular issue to me.

Republicans seek to take away coverage from others but not themselves. There is no way to both cut costs and cover more people–except with going to a single payer plan which Republicans are unlikely to support.

After this was exposed, Republicans say they are looking at this and might change the  language which benefits members of Congress and their staff. We will have to see how the legislation actually looks if and when it actually comes to a vote.

This was revealed shortly before Donald Trump released his tax plan which would provide substantially lower tax rates for companies like his. In case anyone is reading quickly, Trump released his tax plan–not his tax returns, which he still refuses to release.

Trump will face considerable opposition to his tax plan, especially as it would eliminate popular deductions such as for mortgage interest. It remains to be seen how many Republicans will object because of how the plan will greatly increase the deficit. To Republicans, deficits are only a problem when a Democrat is in the White House.