Obamacare Shunned By IRS Chief [Video]
Obamacare is not the kind of insurance that the interim boss of the Internal Revenue Service wants for himself or his family.
Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said yesterday that he want to keep his current health coverage instead of switching to an Obamacare plan.
During a Congressional hearing, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) asked Werfel about Obamacare coverage for federal employees because the IRS employees union — the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) — wants no part of being forced to enroll in a healthcare exchange plan under the Affordable Care Act. Asked Johnson: “Why are your employees trying to exempt themselves from the very law that you’re tasked to enforce?”
Werfel made it clear that — like most Americans — he also wants to keep his coverage rather than be brought under the Obamacare umbrella. “I don’t want to speak for the NTEU, but I’ll offer a perspective as a federal employee myself and a federal employee at the IRS. And that is, we have right now as employees of the government, of the IRS, affordable health care coverage. I think the ACA was designed to provide an option or an alternative for individuals that do not. And all else being equal, I think if you’re an individual who is satisfied with your health care coverage, you’re probably in a better position to stick with that coverage than go through the change of moving into a different environment and going through that process. So I think for a federal employee, I think more likely, and I would — can speak for myself, I would prefer to stay with the current policy that I’m pleased with rather than go through a change if I don’t need to go through that change.”
News emerged today that Congress has apparently exempted itself from the Affordable Care Act in a deal arranged by the White House, although most of the rest of the country must comply with its provisions.
Separately, healthcare premiums will reportedly increase by 41 percent in Ohio once Obamacare goes into implementation. According to Ohio Lt. Gov./Insurance Commissioner Mary Taylor, “The bottom line is the [Affordable Care Act] is driving up premiums across the country… The ACA requires more benefits that every consumer is required to purchase regardless of whether they want them, need them or can afford them,” Politico reports.
President Obama just nominated John Koskinen to become the permanent head of the IRS, an agency engulfed in scandal involving political targeting of opponents of the Obama administration as well as wasteful spending.
Do you think federal lawmakers and federal employees should receive an exemption from Obamacare that is unavailable to ordinary Americans?
