Bill would ax FEHBP in favor of Affordable Care Act plan

Congress

Bill would ax FEHBP in favor of Affordable Care Act plan

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) introduced legislation to require federal employees, the president, vice president and members of Congress to use insurance under the A...

Jason Miller@jmillerWFED

May 1, 2013 12:24 pm

2 min read

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) wants to move federal employees, the president, vice President and members of Congress off the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program and on to insurance exchanges.

Camp and six other members introduced H.R. 1780 last Friday to change the law requiring the executive and legislative branches to use these new plans under the Affordable Care Act.

Camp, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, was joined on the three-page bill by Reps. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Sam Johnson (R-Texas), Devin Nunes (R- Calif.), Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) and Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) as co-sponsors of the bill.

“Chairman Camp has long believed every American ought to be exempt from the law, which is why he supports full repeal. The fact that Democrats are attempting to exempt themselves from the very law they forced on the rest of America proves they know that this law is an abysmal failure,” said a spokeswoman for Camp in a release. “If the ObamaCare exchanges are good enough for the hardworking Americans and small businesses the law claims to help, then they should be good enough for the President, vice president, Congress and federal employees. While the majority of Americans oppose this law, we can all agree that it is only fair that our elected officials follow the same rules as everyone else.”

The bill was referred to three committees: Oversight and Government Reform, Energy and Commerce, and House Administration.

Camp’s legislation is the latest attempt to change federal employee health benefits.

Another new proposal from Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, who led a 2011 commission to reduce the deficit, calls for changing the FEHB into a premium support program.

Simpson and Bowles, who now are leading an organization called the Moment of Truth, also want to move the FEHBP retirement coverage into a subsidy for Medicare premiums instead of wrap-around coverage.

Premiums for federal health plan set to increase 3.4 percent