Congresswoman Pingree, the Way Government Should Be.

Image via Wikipedia

For some time now I have been asking all of our Federal Representatives for information about what kind of health care they have. What does it cost?
How much do they pay? How much do we pay for them?

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree gave Mainers an answer! She responded and you can be certain I have never dropped of a bundle of $$$ money from a PAC. This is the way government should be.
 

Dear Thomas,

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner.   

You asked about Congresswoman Pingree’s health insurance. 
 She pays $152.06 a month and the government pays $337.26 a month for the Blue Cross “standard” option.  She has the same menu of choices for health insurance that all federal employees have.  You can see an explanation of benefits here:

http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/planinfo/2009/brochures/71-005.pdf

Page 129 is where the easiest-to-read summary is printed and the costs are listed on p. 133.  Chellie has gone without health insurance from time to time (including after her COBRA ran out in 2008) and is grateful to be covered by this federal plan—but she deeply believes that everyone should have access to high quality health care coverage—not just people who work for companies or organizations that provide it.

Willy Ritch
Communications Director
 

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree gave Mainers an answer! She responded and you can be certain I have never dropped of a bundle of $$$ money from a PAC. This is the way government should be.

Snowe refused to answer, Collins refused to talk, Michaud's office said this information would be counter productive to the fight.

To keep it simple they all refused to provide public information to a citizen of their State on one of the most important issues in front of Congress in years.

Congresswoman Pingree on the other hand had her representative get right back to me.

I was asked what I wanted and why. With little delay I received the following information. The key bit of information in this is the total cost of the plan which is not way above what any large corporation, or even a well run small county government pays for care.

The kicker is that if you read the links you will see that Congress suffers from no pre-existing condition clauses. They can change plans every year. They insurance companies can't change the plans mid-year in the same way that Medicare Part D drug benefits are change to benefit the drug companies.

For the same or even less money than many employees they get choice, they get to change when they are unhappy, they get a plan that could be affordable. Just imagine the bargaining power of a plan like this with another fifty million members.

Today the public option was thrown under the bus, not by Chellie Pingree, but by Snowe who has two Government pensions, two government health care plans, (Remember Gov. McKernan?).

What is good enough for Snow is too good for us.

What is good enough for Collins is too good for you. The best I can say is that I guess Michaud feels your pain.



Enter your Email





Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz