Two Trump promises are at stake here: Repealing Obamacare and Draining the Swamp and when it comes to public employees, Trump has not shown the fiery commitment to either that persuaded many voters to support him.
Sure, the Republican Congress is as laughable as the Democratic Congress that enacted Obamacare and simultaneously with then President Obama's help (Obama cemented the loophole that characterized our tax-funded payments to public employees for their coverage as 'employer provided' benefits that they could continue to receive) carved out a neat little exception for themselves so that many public employees avoided being bound by the law they made.
Law for the lawmakers is an essential protection for citizens under the rule of law, because obviously the prima donnas in Congress always agree on protecting themselves, so exempting them from having to follow laws imposed on citizens places those citizens in extreme jeopardy from the government designed to represent us.
Now, President Trump can look to Massachusetts much as his predecessor did for an approach to addressing this grievously outrageous Obamacare exemption and draining the swamp, a one-two punch that will help him make good on his campaign promises without resorting to whining about Congress. The same Massachusetts held out as an example justifying Obamacare for Obama should now be held out as an example for draining the swamp for President Trump.
President Obama touted his reliance on the Massachusetts healthcare example in speeches such as one reported on archives of whitehouse.gov from September 26, 2013 when Obama said, "That’s what Massachusetts did when they passed their health care plan a few years ago. And, by the way, today, in Massachusetts, almost everybody is covered and the system works pretty well."
Even with the somewhat obvious failure of Obamacare to fulfill those Massachusetts model examples of "almost everybody is covered," or that "the system works pretty well," Obamacare entrenchment has been hard to overcome for President Trump, mostly because of the dysfunctional Congress that has become the hallmark of our country.
But Trump owns the challenge of fulfilling his campaign promises and a good place to start is law for the lawmakers. Here the intersection of the promise to repeal Obamacare and the promise to drain the swamp can both be addressed by again looking to Massachusetts and its government's recent decision regarding health benefits for its employees and retirees.
As Martha Bebinger reports on January 19, 2018 in "Boston Business Journal," in her article, "Major Mass. Insurers dropped from state employee health system," Massachusetts has decided to move its 442,000 members into "…more limited, less expensive" insurance plans that will "save the state $20.8 million in the next fiscal year."
That's right, Massachusetts has dumped its long-time public employee insurance providers and embraced cheaper and more limited health insurance options for its 442,000 members. The $20.8 million saved in Massachusetts is a fraction of what would be saved in the rich packages afforded federal public employees whose numbers far exceed the 442,000 of the single state of Massachusetts.
President Trump in year two MUST bring law to the lawmakers and encourage an Obamacare-Massachusetts "solution" on the public employees and retirees as part of his promise to both repeal Obamacare and its provision of immunity from Obamacare to public employees and as part of his promise to drain the swamp.
