“Official” or “unofficial”? Loophole allows Congress, staff to weasel out of O-Care compliance

The stuff the, um, honorables on Capitol Hill think is so good for us is apparently not always so good for them and their staffs. Word is coming out of DC about a new angle these people in Congress can use to weasel out of complying with this travesty they’ve saddled us with:

Obamacare is, once again, turning Capitol Hill upside down.

Congressional offices this week have been forced into a frenzied, late-hour scramble to decide which of their staffers will be pushed onto the District of Columbia’s health insurance exchanges and which will be able to keep their current health insurance plans.

Under rules created in the wake of Obamacare’s implementation, House and Senate personal office staffers — dubbed “official office” aides by the House administrative office — are supposed to get their health insurance through D.C.’s health insurance exchange. Committee and leadership staffers — labeled “official staff” — are allowed to keep their current health insurance plan, which is administered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.

But like many things on Capitol Hill, there’s a wrinkle: Members of the House and Senate may quietly allow their aides to stay off the exchange, and keep their current plan.

“It seems too cute,” said Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) of the news. Denham is putting all his staff on the exchanges.

In what members of both parties said was a surprise, guidance on Tuesday from the chief administrative officer of the House said lawmakers could privately designate personal office aides as not “official,” meaning they do not have to go on the exchange and could keep their current plan. Similarly, House lawmakers can decide that their committee and leadership staffers need to go on D.C.’s exchanges.

“Most members are going to opt to have their employees go to the exchanges — that’s the best reading of the rule,” Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) said. “You’re either official or you’re not. If you’re official, you play by the rules. I just don’t think many members are going to opt for this unofficial status.”

Similar guidance was distributed in the Senate last week, where at least one senator not in committee or party leadership was looking at using a “liberal” interpretation of the rules to exempt aides from the exchanges, sources said. But it will be difficult for rank-and-file senators to escape public scrutiny if they choose to keep their aides off the exchanges, given senators’ more prominent stature and fewer numbers than House members.

Some House lawmakers are saying that in the face of vague rules, they will make their own determination about what to do.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says he’ll declare his entire staff — including aides in his personal office — not “official.” They can then keep their current plan, which they bought under the FEHBP.

“I’ve gotta make the right decision for my employees, I gotta make a decision consistent with their best interest and strict interpretation of the law,” Issa told POLITICO Tuesday. “[The rule] doesn’t define [which aides are “official”]. That gets me back to what’s fair. My 18 personal staff both here and in the district, who are currently in FEHBP, will get the same subsidy regardless. One is a known — the other I don’t know the price of. Making the right decision for my employees — this is the right decision.”

Issa stood up in a closed Republican meeting Tuesday and announced this decision, also noting that he voted against Obamacare.

House committee chairs are expected to discuss this situation Wednesday at a meeting.

“It just is one of the other dumb things that this whole [situation] has caused,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, a two-decade congressional veteran. “What we should do is, we should do the same thing for everybody. You know, I’ve been here 21 years, everybody’s been treated the same — Democrat, Republican.”