WASHINGTON _ Reeling from the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump now threatens to block federal funding that lawmakers and their staff rely on to help buy health insurance.
Trump's threats are not empty. The administration could simply stop the payments _ which are provided to Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff much the way many employers help pay employees' monthly insurance premiums _ by dashing off new federal regulation.
But the easy attack on lawmakers skims over what many say was a complicated, but fair-minded, compromise made during the Obamacare debates several years ago.
Under Obamacare, if lawmakers want insurance through their employer _ the federal government _ they are required to buy policies through the ACA exchanges.
There had been great criticism at the time, largely from opponents of the health care bill, that lawmakers and congressional staff should not be exempt from the law. The argument was they should have to live under it. So they did.
Usually those buying individual insurance on the exchanges can apply to see if their income and geographic area allow them to qualify for a federal subsidy. For lawmakers, though, that was prohibited. Instead, they get the regular employer contribution they did before, much in the same way other workers do when their companies buy insurance.
For federal workers, the government covers about 70 percent of the costs, about the same paid by employers in the private sector, according to Kaiser Family Foundation.
The administration affirmed that federal support for lawmakers and their staffs in an Office of Personnel Management regulation issued in 2013.
To cut those funds off, Trump administration could simply reverse course, and issue another regulation changing the rules.
Trump appeared ready to do so in a series of weekend tweets.
"Why should Congress not be paying what public pays," Trump tweeted over the weekend. "If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon."
But such a move would likely cause an uproar in Congress. It's not just that members of Congress, but their staffs, who would have to pay full price for their insurance.
Stopping Trump's action, though, seems tough. It would require Congress to pass legislation ensuring the federal payments would continue to be made. Few lawmakers would likely take up that cause. And even if Congress was able to pass a bill protecting the payments, it seems doubtful Trump at this point would sign it into law.
