{"id":1972,"date":"2013-05-16T14:49:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/megalextoria.wordpress.com\/?p=1972"},"modified":"2013-05-16T14:49:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:49:05","slug":"house-members-say-yes-to-cheap-health-insurance-for-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2013\/05\/16\/house-members-say-yes-to-cheap-health-insurance-for-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"House members say yes to cheap health insurance \u2014 for themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida House Republicans last month loudly and proudly rejected billions of dollars in federal money that would have provided health insurance to 1\u2002million poor Floridians.<\/p>\n

Quietly, they kept their own health insurance premiums staggeringly low. House members will pay just $8.34 a month for state-subsidized health care next year, or $30 a month to cover their entire family.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one-sixth of what state senators and most state employees will pay, and one-tenth of the cost to the average private-sector worker, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also less than the $25 a month House Republicans wanted to charge poor Floridians for basic coverage such as a limited number of doctor visits or preventive care.<\/p>\n

House Republicans, including Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, would not say why the House did not raise its premiums to match the Senate. The premium increase was also part of Gov. Rick Scott\u2019s proposed budget.<\/p>\n

In a statement Monday, Weatherford said: \u201cWe are aware of the differences in what House members pay compared to other state employees for health insurance and are looking forward to addressing it next session.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discrepancy, even if it\u2019s addressed, doesn\u2019t diminish the awkwardness of House lawmakers accepting cheap, subsidized health insurance for themselves while effectively saying no to health care for others.<\/p>\n

Full article: http:\/\/www.tampabay. \u2026 r-themselves\/2120758<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida House Republicans last month loudly and proudly rejected billions of dollars in federal money that would have provided health insurance to 1\u2002million poor Floridians. Quietly, they kept their own health insurance premiums staggeringly low. House members will pay just $8.34 a month for state-subsidized health care next year, or $30 a month to cover their entire family. That\u2019s one-sixth of what state senators and most state employees will pay, and one-tenth of the cost to the average private-sector worker, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. It\u2019s also less than the $25 a month House Republicans wanted to charge poor Floridians for basic coverage such as a limited number of doctor visits or preventive care. House Republicans, including Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, would not say why the House did not raise its premiums to match the Senate. The premium increase was also part of Gov. Rick Scott\u2019s proposed budget. In a statement Monday, Weatherford said: \u201cWe are aware of the differences in what House members pay compared to other state employees for health insurance and are looking forward to addressing it next session.\u201d The discrepancy, even if it\u2019s addressed, doesn\u2019t diminish the awkwardness of House lawmakers accepting cheap, subsidized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[719],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}