Congress Obtained Obamacare Coverage & Subsidies Through Fraud

At a Wednesday press conference to announce the filing of a lawsuit challenging health insurance coverage for members of Congress through the District of Columbia’s small business exchange, Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton called the arrangement “fraud.”

Fitton based his remarks on the D.C. law requiring small businesses to have 50 employees or less to get insurance through the small business exchange, and on documents obtained by the government watchdog group through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority.

“The documents we’ve obtained from the D.C. Health exchange show that every member of Congress who is enrolled in Obamacare has obtained their insurance

“At least 12,359 members of Congress, Congressional staffers and their spouses and dependents currently purchase health insurance in D.C.’s small business exchange even though Congress far exceeds D.C. law’s 50 employee limit for participating in the exchange,” Fitton said.

He added that with a total of 14,289 people signed up through the small business exchange, members of Congress, staff, spouses and dependants make up about 86 percent of all enrollees between October 2013 and September 2014.

Congress Obtained Obamacare Coverage & Subsidies Through Fraud
Second Link

So, basically, they made this package specifically for congress to enroll and denied any others who don't fit the criteria.
Hypocritical much?

How do you feel about this ATS'ers? I'd especially appreciate a comment if you got denied for this particular package, and what you chose instead.

Your link didn't work. Im curious, did they enrol as congressmen, or did they set up some side company and list themselves as workers or something to get the policy?

In any case, of course political powers writing the laws know the loopholes and ins and outs of the system. The majority of people who pay taxes get headaches every year around april, but take any agent of the IRS or other tax authorities around the world and they use every loophole there is (because they know about them) and love tax time, since they reap all the benefits, and get more money back than the rest of us.

a reply to: boncho

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, much appreciated!
I've fixed it and added another link.

Here's a quote from the second link that may help answer some questions:

When Congress applied to participate in the Small Business Exchange, representatives falsely asserted that the House and the Senate each employ 50 or fewer full-time employees. Specifically, records provided by the Exchange Authority in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show that both the House and the Senate falsely claimed that they each employ only 45 full-time employees.

Source

a reply to: 0bservant

I'm confused.
Congressman make well over the amount where they should get a subsidy.
I bet that hold true for much of their staffs, too.

That is totally wrong.

I also bet they have the top tier, very low deductible coverage....Platinum or whatever it is.....while most of middle America stumbles along, only being able to afford Bronze and not being able to pay the huge annual deductibles.

As CNSNews.com reported on Nov. 5, 2013, the Executive Branch’s Office of Personnel Management issued a federal regulation allowing Congress to be treated as a small business, even if Congress employs more than 11,000 staffers and spent $4,329,000,000 on its own

^ Apparently they can bend the rules as they please to bilk tax payers out of money.

Details

A Washington D.C. resident who is 57 years old with a spouse who is 53 years old and with three children will pay a premium of $1,493 per month, or $17,916 per year for a “Bronze” level plan on the Obamacare exchange, according to this calculator. If he and his wife both earn $55,250 per year, they will get $0 in federal subsidies.

However, a family headed by a congressman with the same demographics (and earning the congressman’s salary of $174,000) will get a subsidy of $11,378.16 from his "small business" employer—the Treasury of the United States

All those once insured people who were enjoying decent heathcare at a fairly affordable price (at least for their incomes) who now have no insurance or insurance that is really of little use because the deductable is so outrageous have now become just fodder to be used to help these elite "entitled" jerks continue to enjoy affordable healthcare!
Weren't we lead to believe that they were playing by the same rules as us on this? Or is my csr turning into full fedged Alzheimer's?