Would President Trump and Congress lose their discount medical coverage if they killed the Obamacare plan they’re now under?
No way, even if an estimated 20 million other Americans got the ax.
Congress would just shift to an existing taxpayer-subsidized coverage plan that members like even better.
And they’d still retain access to free or low-cost care through the Office of the Attending Physician as well as free outpatient care at military facilities around Washington, D.C., according to CNBC.
Contrary to widely held public opinion, members of Congress don’t get free medical insurance, but they can and do buy a top Obamacare medical plan at a 72 percent discount. The balance of course is paid by Ye Olde American Taxpayer, according to the fact-checking Snopes.com website.
So GOP members of Congress and President Trump have nothing to lose, medically, by their frenzied attempts to kill Obamacare. They’d still be covered by something called the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which many in Congress liked better before Obamacare replaced it.
I’m still mystified why anyone who considers himself or herself a public servant would be so desperate to deprive millions of people of health insurance.
Repeal Obamacare? Hell yes, but come up with a replacement that doesn’t deprive millions from coverage — not yet.
Then there’s President Trump, busting a gut to get some kind of health-care bill passed, no matter how shoddy. He’ll never need it, at least while in office.
“In fact, there’s always a doctor on call within the White House and a medical staff accompanying the president wherever he goes,” writes David Lazarus of the L.A. Times.
The White House Medical Unit is fully equipped and has been compared with a mini-urgent care center and, from what I’ve read, sounds far better than your average urgent-care clinic. It’s also available to the First Family, which is huuuge.
And, well, it should be available to the president, upon whom so much depends, especially when split-second decisions are needed, whether due to one of Vladimir Putin’s jet games of chicken in the sky or Kim Jong Un’s nuclear threat against Guam.
But I also care about families down the block, whether it’s a trip to Sansum’s Urgent Care after a fall from a bike or Grandma’s shortness of breath needing a speedy visit to Cottage Hospital via 9-1-1.
I know from recent experience that we have access to top medical care in Santa Barbara, even if it isn’t as close as the backyard.
At this writing, congressional Republicans haven’t managed to kill Obamacare, but not for lack of trying.
Jeffrey Frank of the New Yorker reports that one of the reasons lawmakers might be fixed on killing Obamacare is because they had such a great deal with their federal health benefits.
That’s what they’d go back to. Unfortunately, the other 20 million or so jettisoned when Obamacare is killed wouldn’t. They’d be on their own.
Members of Congress also enjoy those top health perks in the U.S. Capitol from the Office of the Attending Physician at the low price of $600 a year. The congressional clinic is staffed by U.S. Navy doctors, nurses, technicians, and a pharmacist, all for that low fee.
With all that cheap TLC, why they don’t seem to give a hoot about the general public is a mystery to me.
In spite of the inducements under Obamacare, many young people who could afford health insurance choose to go without it, opting instead to enjoy the costly pleasures of luxury.
They don’t see health insurance as a necessity. “I’m not sick!”
As columnist Lazarus put it, President Trump’s position about getting sick seems to be “What, me worry?”
If he gets sick or diagnosed with a chronic illness, top-quality medical help is always at hand.
“And he won’t pay a dime for his treatment. You’ll pay all his bills.”