According to the state party web site
Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple: “If our Republican House members feel so strongly that this is some kind of special treatment, then they should voluntarily forfeit it today.”
On the seventh day of a Republican government shutdown, due to the US House majority demanding a dismantling of the Affordable Care Act before they fund basic services, Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple issued a challenge to Representatives Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Vicky Hartzler, Sam Graves, Billy Long, and Jason Smith: that they voluntarily forfeit their employer contributions to their health care plans – contributions they have lately labeled “special treatment.”
Under the Affordable Care Act, members of Congress and their staffs are the only people in the country required to leave their employer health care plans, and shop on the new health care exchanges set up by the law. In recent days, Republicans in the US House have justified their shutdown of the federal government by claiming that members of Congress and staff are getting “special treatment,” because they will continue to receive an employer contribution when they shop on the exchanges.
Most big employers across the country, both private and public, offer a contribution to help pay for the cost of insuring their employees. And staff for the Republican Senator who authored the Affordable Care Act amendment requiring Congress to give up their employer plans have confirmed that their intent was never to eliminate the employer contribution.
On Monday, Temple told Republicans to “put their money where their mouths are.”
“If these Republicans who have shut down essential services across Missouri really think it’s so immoral for someone to take an employer contribution for their health care, then they should never have accepted it to begin with – and they should decline their employer health coverage or return the value of their employer contribution to the U.S. Treasury today. It’s the height of hypocrisy to claim you’ve shut down the government because you want to get rid of ‘special treatment,’ and still accept that contribution all the same. So it’s time for them to put up, or shut up.”
Members of Congress can forfeit their employer contribution to their health care plans at any time.
While Republican House members have claimed repeatedly that Congress and staff are “exempt” from, or get “special treatment” under the Affordable Care Act, multiple news outlets have debunked those rumors as false: