Healthcare law hits home for Congress | www.myajc.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey has spent four-plus years in political struggle against every nook and cranny of the Affordable Care Act.

And the Marietta Republican says he still doesn’t know how he will navigate the law’s insurance exchanges for himself.

Capitol Hill, home to some of the best informed foes and fans of the law known as Obamacare, is in a state of confusion as the law rolls out this fall — a symptom of the continued conflict around the act’s real-world effects.

The law boots members of Congress and their staffs from their generous Federal Employees Health Benefits plans at year’s end, meaning they will have to select an insurance plan from exchanges designed for those who lack employer-based health insurance.

With enrollment scheduled to begin Oct. 1, a battle is raging over whether the government will continue to help pay for the insurance plans and whether some staff members will be exempt.

The Obama administration in a preliminary ruling has allowed the government to continue its subsidy of about 75 percent of health insurance costs for members and staff. A final ruling from the Office of Personnel Management is expected sometime next month. It is already under assault from Republicans in Congress who backed the provision to force themselves and staffers onto exchanges, a move opponents say was mainly political.

Gingrey, who is running for Senate next year, has introduced a bill that would eliminate the employer subsidy, leaving members and staff to buy health insurance on the exchanges and only receive a subsidy if their incomes are low enough. Gingrey, whose House salary is $174,000 a year, said if his bill passes it will personally cost him $5,000 to $6,000 a year.

“It is really resonating,” Gingrey said of the administration’s decision to keep the subsidies. “People are furious.”

The hyperpartisanship surrounding the Affordable Care Act has further inflamed the debate, with Republicans seeking to denounce and tear down the law at every turn, and Democrats digging in to defend it. House conservatives are rallying behind a plan by U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, a Republican from Ranger, to delay the entire law for a full year as part of a spending bill to keep the government running.

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