Ryan Lizza at the New Yorker brilliantly thought to ask Congressional staff to email him on the subject of the scheme by Senator David Vitter and others to force them onto the Obamacare Marketplace exchange without the government subsidies that will make the program work for everybody else (so that in the name of giving them "no special privileges" he wants to have them actually treated worse than the entire remaining population). Here is a sample response:
I will make $22,800 this year after taxes. That is it. I am a 30 year old married congressional staffer with a 20 month old son who depends on my job for his health insurance. My husband has to pay for his own health care through his salary, and it would cost him over $1000 a month to cover the whole family. I just started in this position 6 months ago, after being out of work for a year and staying at home with my baby. I need my health insurance, and I cannot afford to pay $600 a month for coverage. Without this so called “subsidy” (the same “subsidy” congressional staffers have been receiving for years before the ACA) both myself and my son will be uninsured. With our combined salaries, my husband and I will not qualify for subsidies via the ACA, so we would have to pay for it all out of pocket....Much more, some of it pretty moving, at the link. I do not have any illusions that Lizza reads this page or that I had anything to do with his great story, but I do want to note that I was there first, piping my native woodnotes wild, three or so weeks ago. H/t JJ for the tip.
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