We taxpayers pays a significant portion of each legislators insurance approximately…. 75 percent of the premiums. The legislator pays approximately 25%. How does that compare to most employer contributions?

Under 2009 Fee For Service health plans a congressman and his family , regardless of age and health condition can get a standard family plan from Blue Cross and Blue Shield for $1120 a month in premiums. Of that, the taxpayer picks up $763 of the cost, leaving the Congressman to pay $356 out of pocket

So what do other Americans have to pay??

My wife and I are in our 60’s.
We are self employed and pay ALL our own health insurance premiums. No employer contributions. No pretaxed benefits
Being 60 our health is not perfect. My wife has a pacemaker, takes medications for osteoporosis and high cholesterol.
So here’s the only insurance plan that people like us can afford with Blue Shield
Premiums=$900 per month
Deductible=$8000 per year
Essentially our health insurance doesn’t provide anything but protection. We pay for everything out of pocket

The problem with most legislators is they have very little idea of how tough it is out in the real world to get affordable insurance coverage. They live in ivory towers where they get a paycheck every month…no matter how bad the economy…and where their benefits are subsidized by the same US taxpayers that are struggling to make ends meet.

The federal plan is one of the best health plans out there. According to the US office of Personnel Management, ” Federal employees, retirees and their survivors enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country.” With millions of federal employees, they can bargain with insurance companies for the best rates. Preexisiting conditions are no problem for legislators. And with taxpayers picking up the majority of their premiums, the cost of health care becomes a minor issue.
Compare that to the millions of self employed Americans out there who struggle to pay exorbitant premiums while getting little heath care in return…and you can see why so many Americans are mad as hell…especially since some legislators are doing everything they can to oppose any real health care reform and to keep things the way they are.
Add to that an economy that has turned most self employed people into the unrecognized “unemployed”

As long as legislators get guaranteed taxpayer subsidized health care, they aren’t likely to comprehend what is really going on out there in the real world.
No wonder many legislators think that health care in America is just fine. If I had a cushy “publicly funded” health care plan like members of Congress I probably wouldn’t be concerned either

Wasn’t it Marie Antoinette who said of the masses of starving Parisians “If they have no food, let them eat cake”