U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill this week took advantage of the affordable health care plans offered to Missourians under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), comparing plans available on healthcare.gov, and purchasing a policy that matches her needs.

Members of Congress and their staff are the only people in the country required by the Affordable Care Act to drop their employer health plan and purchase their health insurance on the new health insurance marketplaces set up by the law. Instead of using the Washington, D.C. marketplace, to which Congressional Members and staff were directed, McCaskill opted to use healthcare.gov, saying she wanted to have the same experience as her Missouri constituents. In doing so, McCaskill forfeited her federal employer contribution to her health plan and will be paying the entire cost of her new plan.

“My experience buying a plan on healthcare.gov tells me that the exchange is now doing exactly what it was meant to-provide a marketplace where private insurers are competing for our business, and offering a big range of options,” McCaskill said. “It wasn’t completely hassle-free, but it was pretty close, and all told it took me less than 45 minutes to create an account, shop for available plans, and select a new insurance policy. We need to keep working hard to fix problems with this law, but we can’t return to the old broken system where so many folks were shut out of the insurance market, and companies could discriminate because of preexisting conditions, or drop you when you got sick. We’ve got to keep moving forward.”

In addition to forfeiting her employer contribution, McCaskill was not eligible for subsidies that are available to many low and middle-income Americans, and that would have further lowered her monthly premium.

Watch video HERE of McCaskill navigating healthcare.gov and purchasing her Affordable Care Act insurance policy.

DETAILS OF McCASKILL’S NEW INSURANCE PLAN

Plan: $5 Copay PPO Carelink from Coventry
Plan’s category: Gold
Monthly premium: $552.60/mo
Deductible: $1,750/yr
Out-of-pocket maximum: $5,000/yr
Copay: $5 primary, $50 specialist, $5 generic prescription
Subsidies: McCaskill was not eligible for subsidies that are available to many low and middle-income Americans, and that would have further lowered her monthly premium
Employer contribution: Because McCaskill wished to use the same exchange used by Missourians, she purchased her plan on healthcare.gov, forfeiting her federal employer contribution, which would have been available if she used the Washington, D.C. exchange
McCaskill also issued a challenge to any elected officials who have claimed that the federal employer contribution somehow represents “special treatment,” or an “exemption” for Congress, to follow her lead and give up their own employer contributions.

McCaskill, a strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act, has consistently worked across the aisle to make commonsense improvements to the law as it is implemented-first by successfully removing a burdensome reporting requirement on businesses, then teaming up with Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to seek a repeal of a provision that has proved problematic by causing some states to subsidize high wages at hospitals through Medicare reimbursements.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Two men from Saudi Arabia are out of the Greene County jail after their country posted their $2 million bail.

The men, 21-year-old Rayan Mohammed A Alqabbaa and 27-year-old Ahmed Ayed A Alanazi, are charged with kidnapping a woman from a downtown Springfield nightclub and sexually assaulting her in June.

A cab driver notified police after becoming suspicious of how the men were treating the woman. Officers found her in an apartment crying, partially clothed and asking for help.

The county circuit clerk’s office says the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wired the money to the office Tuesday. The men must wear GPS ankle bracelets and their lawyer must keep their passports.

The men’s attorneys have said surveillance video from the nightclub contradicts the woman’s story.

(AP)  An aviation maintenance and overhaul firm from Washington plans to bring about 600 new jobs to a maintenance base at the Kansas City International Airport, with the possibility of up to 1,000 jobs in the future.

Aviation Technical Services, based in Everett, Wash., announced plans Thursday to invest $57 million and lease 607,000 square feet at KCI’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul base. The firm said it plans to hire 540 new employees and 40 contract workers at KCI within three to five years, The Kansas City Star reported.

 U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) joined U.S. Senators Mark Kirk (Ill.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), and 23 other U.S. Senators today to introduce the “Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act,” bipartisan legislation proposing prospective sanctions on Iran should the regime violate the interim Joint Plan of Action agreed to in Geneva or should Iran fail to reach a final agreement.

“Despite the White House’s opposition, many of my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle agree that we must be more aggressive in stopping Iran from developing its nuclear weapons capabilities,” said Blunt, who is one of three U.S. Senators to serve on both the defense authorizing and appropriations committees.

The legislation requires further reductions in purchases of Iranian petroleum and applies additional penalties to strategic elements of the Iranian economy, to include the engineering, mining and construction sectors. Simultaneously, it gives the Administration continued flexibility and up to one year from the conclusion of an implementing agreement to pursue a diplomatic track resulting in the complete and verifiable termination of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program.

“If Iran has not made significant progress towards their determination that they will never pursue nuclear weapons at the end of the six-month interim period, this bipartisan legislation rightly calls for more robust sanctions,” Blunt concluded.

(AP) – Missourians can now go online to register to vote or change their addresses on file with elections authorities.

Secretary of State Jason Kander announced the new service Thursday, saying it would simplify the registration process and make it more convenient.

Voters will sign registration forms on a computer, and the secretary of state’s office will complete a preliminary review. The forms then will be printed and mailed to local elections officials to check for completeness and validity.

Kander’s office says 15 other states currently have online tools for voter registration and that five others are developing them.

(AP) – Missouri students are battling litter with creativity.

Students in kindergarten through eighth grade are invited to decorate 30-gallon trash cans as part of the “Yes You CAN Make Missouri Litter-Free” contest. The annual competition is sponsored by Missouri’s departments of conservation and transportation.

School groups must submit a completed entry form online and up to three photos by March 14.

Prices of $200 are awarded to the sponsoring schools of first-place winners from each competition category. All first-place winners are then eligible for $600 grand prize.