For Congress, healthcare plans remain a notch above: They're getting better service & benefits

Trying to align lawmakers with the people they represent, Congress three years ago decided that when the new healthcare plan took effect, members would give up their platinum health benefits and enroll in the online marketplaces created for millions of other Americans.

In typical congressional fashion, however, things have not worked out exactly as advertised.

While many members of Congress are indeed signing up for health coverage through the District of Columbia exchange — which was designated as the provider for all members — their experiences have been significantly better than those of average consumers in several respects, including more generous benefits packages, VIP customer service from insurers and the same government-subsidized premiums they've always enjoyed.

It's a far cry from the experience of millions of other Americans, who have been frustrated by a crash-prone federal website, policy cancellations and confusion over the new program....

When all this happened, OPM, big HR for the federal government, decided that Congressional members and staff would be required to get "gold" level coverage and that the government would still pay up to 75% of the premium cost. At what level that decision was made is another question.

If anybody has looked at the different levels of Obamacare coverage, "gold" is where the plans start to look anything like comprehensive style coverage. Bronze and Silver look a lot more like catastrophic with high deductibles that apply even to routine primary care. Even with the "gold" plans congressional staff are going to see higher deductible and out of pocket expenses compared to their old plan and higher out of pocket caps. I imagine overall costs to taxpayers to support those premium contributions will be higher than leaving staff on FEHB.

Personally, I find FEHB to fairly fleet average compared to my friends and family that work for decent sized companies. It is right down the middle compared to my friends working airline jobs. It is better than my sister's who works for a battery manufacturing company, worse than my brother who works for an internet startup, the same as my B.I.L who works for Northrop-Grumman.

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