Much more to come on the latest Republican run in Congress at replacing Obamacare, but here’s a note of monumental hypocrisy to start things off, courtesy of Vox:
The new Republican amendment, introduced Tuesday night, would allow states to waive out of Obamacare’s ban on pre-existing 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-N.J.) 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 me to this particular issue.
Are Reps. French Hill, Bruce Westerman, Rick Crawford and Steve Womack on board with giving themselves and staff better health coverage than they are willing to give the American people? Ask them. If you can find them.