16 Freshmen GOP Decline Federal Health Coverage

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

We read in POLITICO today about 16 freshmen Republican members of Congress who declined to take the health insurance coverage that's offered to federal government employees. As a result, they've found themselves in the market for individual health insurance, and the experience has not always been pleasant.

Joining us now is Representative Rich Nugent of Florida, who opted not to take federal health benefits.

Welcome to the program.

Representative RICH NUGENT (Republican, Florida): Thank you, Robert.

SIEGEL: And first, let's just say that I have read that your three sons have graduated from college already.

Rep. NUGENT: Yeah.

SIEGEL: Your wife is a schoolteacher. So do they all have coverage in one way or another? Is this just you?

Rep. NUGENT: Well, they're in the United States Army. So they're covered. And my wife obviously is under the family plan. We have one son who is just awaiting his final orders for active-duty Army. So he's still covered underneath my plan.

SIEGEL: So it's you and your wife and your youngest son. Well, how much does it cost to insure the three of you?

Rep. NUGENT: Well, it's going to cost us well over $1,200 a month.

SIEGEL: Twelve-hundred-dollars-plus a month?

Rep. NUGENT: Yeah, it's almost $1,300, right.

SIEGEL: Now, a congressional salary is over $170,000. So if you have to do this, you could afford to do it. Somebody who's making $80,000, $70,000 a year, it sounds impossible.

Rep. NUGENT: Right. Well, you know, as a retiree, that's exactly what you'd be paying. You know, as a retiree, my pension would be under $70,000. So that's the reality of it, that the health care right now is just so expensive, and that's part of the issue as to where we need to be.

SIEGEL: One argument here is that since you're a federal employee, it's not that you get great subsidized service; it's that you're one of eight million people. It's a huge pool and therefore that kind of a plan can negotiate rates down. So you would take advantage of a much cheaper insurance policy.

Rep. NUGENT: Well, it can, but when you look at what they were going to charge me for family coverage, it was subsidized to the tune of almost 75 percent. And that's the actual cost that the federal government is paying for an elected official's health care.

So while you can - you know, you can get lower rates because of the larger pool, it's not that much better, I will tell you.

SIEGEL: For those people listening, saying Congressman Nugent had access to, you know, a few hundred dollars a month, government-employee health insurance, and he's opted to spend $1,300. For those who are questioning your fiscal sanity here right now...

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIEGEL: ...what exactly is the reason for deciding to do this?

Rep. NUGENT: Well, you know, it's about ethical. It's about leading from the front. And it's kind of hard to look at people and say, hey, listen, we need to cut back, or it may cost you more money, if you're not willing to do the same thing.

SIEGEL: But isn't the essence of your problem right now that you're in the individual insurance market and that if we could find some way for you and the other people who have retired from the sheriff's office to be part of a group buy, a massive group buy, you could do a lot better than $1,200 to $1,300 a month?

Rep. NUGENT: Well, actually, that is part of the group buy. But we pay 100 percent of it. The government doesn't subsidize any portion of it. So that's why it's so expensive.

But I think that if we had true health care reform that I wouldn't be paying $1,300 a month for this health care. If we had true tort reform, if we had true health care reform where physicians weren't ordering unnecessary, you know, procedures just to protect their backside, I'd think that a lot of us would see a reduction in what we pay in any health care, whether it's, you know, employee - helped, subsidized, or, you know, employer-subsidized.

SIEGEL: Representative Nugent, thanks for talking with us.

Rep. NUGENT: I appreciate having me on.

SIEGEL: That's Congressman Rich Nugent, Republican of Florida, a freshman who decided to forego federal government employees' health insurance benefits.

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