Kevin Corcoran has an article in the Indianapolis Star this morning entitled, Bosma: Now not time to end costly health plan
The Republican leader of the Indiana House has killed proposals to cut back or eliminate taxpayer-subsidized health care for former legislators, even though several Republicans in key races were elected last fall after campaigning for the changes.
Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, who was swept into power after his party took control of the chamber last fall, acknowledged that offering lifetime health care to former lawmakers has become costly and hard to justify.
But he said now is not the time for legislative action.
. . .
The benefit is available to former lawmakers, their spouses, surviving spouses, divorced spouses and dependents. Twenty-two former lawmakers and one ex-lawmaker’s surviving spouse are signed up, House and Senate records show.
I’m not necessarily concerned about the the expense to the state, which the article mentions is a drop in the bucket compared to overall expenditures. My main concern is how this sort of thing insulates legislators from the concerns of average Hoosiers. If you aren’t faced with the full force of significant annual health insurance premium increases, your inclination to regard them as a problem is not as great.
Update: A few hours after posting this, I ran across a healthcare plan suggested for Members of Congress a couple of years ago by Michael Thomas in an online forum in which I participate.
At the beginning of each term each member would be assigned to a health care plan in proportions mirroring the situtations of average Americans; some will get unlimited budgets, some will be enrolled in PPOs or HMOs, and some will have no insurance and would have to present themselves to the DC public hospitals for treatment.
Members seeking care outside of their designated plan would be subject to immediate forfeiture of all of their assets and sentenced to life without parole. Medical providers providing care beyond that authorized would have their licenses revoked. The thought is that, if we already had the best and most equitable possible health care system, nothing would change. However, if there was room for improvement, you can bet we’d find it very quickly under that system.
Leave a Reply