This one's on him.
Useful idiot for the right, Ron Fournier, is back at it, clutching his pearls over yet another potential Obamacare "scandal."
WTF -- How do Dem Congressional leaders and the White House let this happen? Will be used against #ACA:
http://t.co/... #leadership
— @ron_fournier
"This" is
this story from
The New York Times that reminds us all that members of Congress are now buying their insurance, as are their staff members, from the D.C. health insurance exchange. That's because Republican senators Tom Coburn and Chuck Grassley thought it'd be a cute idea that would hurt the legislation as Democrats were trying to push it through. It didn't work, though, because Democrats enthusiastically embraced the whole idea.
And now the NYT, and Fournier, are agog that members and staff "have access to 'in-person support sessions' like the ones being conducted at the Capitol and congressional office buildings," and that "the fact that lawmakers have a larger menu of “gold plan” insurance choices than most of their constituents have back home."
First, in states where members of Congress and Republican officials haven't been able to shut that whole thing down, regular people do have access to one-on-one support sessions. They're called navigators; people hired specifically to do just that—help walk people through their options. Second, there are so many great plans on the D.C. exchange because there were a ton of great plans on its predecessor, the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, and they mostly just migrated to the exchange where they could continue to provide their great coverage, just like Coburn and Grassley wanted.
If Fournier really wants a congressional health care scandal to concern troll over, maybe he ought to do some research on the Office of the Attending Physician. If he really does want a gold-plated scandal, how about the fact that members of Congress can get every health concern addressed at a moment's notice for a measly $503 a year (as of 2009, but the fee hasn't changed significantly in years).