AOC has a problem – she needs to purchase health insurance, and she simply has way too many plans to choose from!
Talk about a first world problem. “Members of Congress also have to buy their plans off the exchange. They are Gold plans that are partially subsidized,” she wrote in a tweet. “That means I get to ‘choose’ between 66 complex financial products.” Who knew her economics degree couldn’t even prepare her for this?
“This is absurd…. no one should go through this,” she concluded, as if she just suffered a great trauma.
Members of Congress also have to buy their plans off the exchange. They are Gold plans that are partially subsidized.
That means I get to “choose” btwn 66 complex financial products.
This is absurd. No person should go without healthcare, &no one should go through this, either. pic.twitter.com/bIeD71CD5g
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 16, 2019
They’re also upset that I stated 66 “choices” is too many.
It is! Healthcare is not H&M. Insurance is a complex financial product for the doctor. Costs are skyrocketing largely due to the financialization of our health.
Streamlining our system & covering more isn’t a bad thing.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 16, 2019
Considering that of the sixty-six plans she has to choose from are of the highest quality, I’d be telling AOC to check her privilege right about now if I were a liberal. And speaking of that “partial subsidy” AOC mentioned, it’s more of a majority subsidy. As CNBC notes, “[Congresspeople] choose a gold-level Obamacare policy and receive federal subsidies that cover 72 percent of the cost of the premiums.”
That’s not a bad perk in addition to a $174,000 salary. (Of note, AOC has complained about the salary for Congresspeople being frozen at $174k since 2009).
As you’d expect, AOC didn’t find much of the sympathy she was looking for.
Yes because everyone is the same so there should be no difference in a plan for an 18 year old male and a 59 year old woman. https://t.co/ogjQIxnG6Z
— Drew McCoy (@_Drew_McCoy_) December 16, 2019
You get 66 choices. I got 3.
And they all cost 4x more than the insurance that the federal law made me ditch, with an $8,000+ annual deductible, for less coverage than my original insurance.
Stop complaining. https://t.co/4wNGYakshT— Sean The Producer (@SeanTheProducr) December 16, 2019
Equating the challenges of living without health care to asking a member of Congress to choose from 66 “Gold” insurance plans is insulting & absurd. @AOC, “no one should go through this, either” is not equivalent & we don’t feel badly for Congress or the choices you have to make https://t.co/j8omEBPJyh
— Marc Molinaro (@marcmolinaro) December 16, 2019
Aww poor thing… (not really). Some of us only have 1-3 options! You’re so spoiled, stop complaining about your privilege of having 66 plan options.
— Alejandrina G.R. (@alejandrina_gr) December 16, 2019
In conclusion – should we nationalize nearly a fifth of America’s economy because AOC can’t figure out how to navigate a website? Probably not.
