Obamacare Is For The Little People

And Harry Reid is not one of those smelly little people.

One of the biggest public supporters of the Affordable Care Act has reportedly decided that some of his staff should be exempted from the new law.

CNN reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is the only top congressional leader to exempt some of his staff from having to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

That’s right, even House Majority Leader John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who have voted against the healthcare law dozens of times, have told their staff to sign up for insurance plans through the federal exchange.

The news will likely provide another talking point to critics of the healthcare law, commonly known as Obamacare. After all, members of Congress and their staff are not only required to buy insurance through the exchanges, they must buy plans in the “gold” tier, the second most-expensive option available.

Yahoo News has reached out to the offices of all 100 U.S. senators to see if any other members have exempted committee staff from the federal exchange. So far, the offices of 42 senators have responded to our inquiry, with 39 saying that the senator and their entire staff will switch over to the exchanges in January.

The offices of Ron Wyden, Tim Johnson and Barbara Boxer, all Democrats, said they were exempting some of their staff. Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, has not responded.

Interesting that only Democrats are exempting their staff from the law. 

Oh, and let's not forget. Barack Obama promised to buy his own insurance through Obamacare exchanges. He has exempted himself. 

President Obama has yet to make good on the administration's promises that he would sign up for health insurance on the new government exchanges, the White House acknowledged on Monday.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said that Obama has not signed up for Obamacare and that he did have a reason for the delay.

A reporter pressed Carney on whether the White House would make it an open-press event if and when Obama does enroll.

“I'll get back to you,” Carney replied.

Shortly after Obama signed the new health care law in March 2010, a White House official said the president planned to walk the walk and sign up for the insurance exchanges his law created.

“The president will participate in the exchange,” an administration official told USA Today at the time.