If You Like Your Plan, You Can Keep It—If You’re in Congress

Obamacare requires members of Congress and their staffs to ditch their existing health care plans and purchase coverage through the law’s exchanges.

This provision has proved unpopular with lawmakers, who had become accustomed to paying as little as 28 percent of the cost of their premiums.

But the Obama administration feared that amending the law would open the door to other changes or even repeal. So President Obama created a loophole for his Congressional cronies so they can keep their taxpayer-funded plans.

Heritage Foundation legal experts Andrew Kloster and Joseph Morris explain what happened:

– President Barack Obama, in a closed-door meeting, promised the Democratic caucus that he would devise an administrative fix to the problem. Subsequently, on October 2, the Office of Personnel Management issued a final rule amending the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program regulations to authorize “Government contribution for ‘health benefits plans….’”

The Obama administration’s decision “to provide subsidies to Members of Congress and their staff contradicts the plain language of both the [Federal Employee Health Benefits] Program statute and Obamacare,” they conclude. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and a member of his staff are now challenging the Obama administration in court.

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