LIBERADIO(!)

Does your health insurance cover exploding craniums due to maddening and unexplained selfishness?

So we’ve been talking a lot about how the Republicans leading the charge against health security for all Americans already have health care coverage. Good health care coverage. It’s the classic, “I got mine, screw you guys” scenario.

But this weekend we learned, when several of the tea party protesters were treated during an event in D.C., that while some of us are languishing in a system designed to screw us out of everything we’ve ever worked for, members of Congress not only have solid health care coverage – they also have a backup. A BACKUP!

Yep. Members of Congress have affordable health care coverage. Twice.

From Joe Powell:

As a few thousand folks lined up to hear the Republican congressmen (most of whom were absent from actual committee votes on public policy) last week, some of those anti-healthcare bill protesters needed some emergency medical help from – gasp!! – government operated medicine providers.

One person suffered a heart attack and several others also needed medical care — all of it provided by government medical personnel. Other protesters denouncing government-run healthcare likewise benefited from a service they despise, though none refused medical assistance from the Office of Attending Physicians [OAP] who are always on hand to treat elected officials.

And how does the OAP work?

Members of Congress do not pay for the individual services they receive at the OAP, nor do they submit claims through their federal employee health insurance policies. Instead, members pay a flat, annual fee of $503 for all the care they receive. The rest of the cost of their care, sources said, is subsidized by taxpayers.

Last year, Congress appropriated more than $3 million to reimburse the Navy for staff salaries at the office. Next year’s budget allocates $3.8 million for the office, including more than half a million dollars to upgrade the Office’s radiology suite. Sources said additional money to operate the office is included in the Navy’s annual budget.

In 2008, 240 members paid the annual fee, though some sources say congressmen who didn’t pay the fee were rarely prevented from using OAP services.

The arguments against affordable health insurance from Bachman, Pence, King et. al. wouldn’t be so gag-worthy if they would just give up their health insurance. And the backup plan.