This is a question Politico has been sort of obsessed with of late. Back in April, they published a
story about how Congress was secretly working on a way to exempt themselves from Obamacare, a story that was at best half true. Now they've got another one, warning of a
huge defection of staff and members that could be coming because of Obamacare.
Here's the story. Congress is talking about how figure out what to do with itself, and its employees, after it let Sen. Chuck Grassley screw things up. See, Grassley thought he could make Democrats look bad by offering up an amendment to the Affordable Care Act that would force Congress onto the new health exchanges. The plan was, Democrats would reject it and look like hypocrites. Which they did not do. They adopted it.
The problem is, members of Congress and their staff are all employees of a very large employer, the federal government. In their wisdom, they didn't pass a provision to go along with Grassley's amendment to address this single large employer that would be forced onto the exchange. Large employers aren't allowed on the exchanges until 2017, and will only be accepted at that time if the state decides to let them on. But right now, there are no procedures for handling premium contributions for large employers. This means that it's possible the federal government wouldn't pay the employer's portion of health insurance premiums for members of Congress and staff.
This is where the latest Politico starts.
Dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting. [...]
“It’s a reality,” said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). “This is the law. … It’s going to hinder our ability with retention of members, it’s going to hinder our ability for members to take care of their families.” He said his fellow lawmakers are having “quiet conversations” about the threat.
But, again, that's just part of the story. The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees benefits for all federal employees, hasn't determined their interpretation of the law yet, and is quite likely to decide that the federal government can continue to pay its part of employee benefits. As of this moment, this isn't a real thing to panic about. But it's a fun Obamacare scare story for Republicans and Politico.
But if it really does happen, just remember, it's all Chuck Grassley's fault.