Why can’t the rest of us have the same health care that members of Congress have?
Everyone should be able to get the same type of coverage that members of Congress have. All members of Congress and our staff members – along with all other federal employees and federal retirees as well as our dependents — are eligible to participate in a large health insurance purchasing pool that’s managed by the federal Office of Personnel Management. It’s called the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP), and it covers roughly 8 million people. When you’re buying health insurance for that many people, a lot of insurance companies want to be able to offer the participants a wide range of coverage at a decent price. My family and I use the standard BlueCross/BlueShield plan. It costs about $12,000 per year which – I’m told – is approximately what many FEHBP participants pay for family coverage. Individual coverage in the FEHBP costs about $5,000 per year. Participants pay 28 percent of premiums, and the federal government pays the rest. Market forces help to ensure that we ha
