Health care reform was a major issue in the last two elections, with conservative Republicans using “Obamacare” to drub their opponents at the ballot box. But election posturing aside, it is hard to take politicians who rant about something while benefiting from the exact thing they claim to despise. And so it is with publicly funded health care and legislators.
Last session we saw a blood feud over expanding Medicaid to 70,000 Montanans, with that expansion paid for entirely by the federal government. The proposal was tagged as part of Obamacare and died in a flurry of anti-government rhetoric in a Legislature dominated by ultra-conservative Republicans.
Ironically, almost all conservative legislators choose to receive taxpayer-sponsored health insurance. I don’t have any problem with legislators getting state health benefits. But legislators who complain about “public” health care programs while taking taxpayer money to fund their own health benefits are talking out of both sides of their mouths.
Being a Montana legislator is part-time job. In fact, most legislators have other jobs. They work for the state 90 days every two years, in addition to interim committee meetings and possibly during a special session if one is called. They receive $82.64 per “legislative day” and about $110 per diem for every day they work. They also receive $887 per month for insurance, whether they work in that month or not.
Even though they only work part time, legislators are eligible for the same benefits as full-time state employees. It’s a really good deal … at taxpayers’ expense. Each legislator receives a little over $10,000 a year for health insurance no matter how much they actually work. In addition, if they don’t want join the state plan, they can take that monthly amount and have it applied to an insurance policy of their choice.
If your expectation is that legislators who are so offended by taxpayer-subsidized health care would decline these taxpayer funded benefits out of principle, you would be wrong. During the 2011 and 2013 sessions only eight declined, some Democrats and some Republicans. The final count for the 2015 session is not yet available, but these numbers have been consistent over time.
The problem is not that legislators get health benefits. The problem is legislators who take this benefit while deriding taxpayer-funded health coverage for others. Republican legislative leaders don’t seem to have a problem taking taxpayer-funded health insurance, but they opposed Medicaid expansion during the last session while taking the state health insurance subsidy. Hopefully during the fight about Medicaid expansion in the coming session, these public officials will explain to the rest of us why they deserve more than the 70,000 Montanans who could get health insurance through Medicaid expansion.
Ken Toole, a former state senator, is president of the Policy Institute in Helena.