DC Mayor, Council Members Received Health Insurance Subsidies: Report

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and her D.C. Council colleagues reportedly received subsidies for taxpayer-funded insurance as they purchased their health coverage through the D.C. government and not through D.C. Health Link, according to the Federalist. The mayor has been asking D.C. residents to buy health insurance from D.C. Health Link. Although Bowser and council members can buy insurance through Obamacare exchanges like the D.C. Health Link, but they must abandon their employer subsidy to be able to do so. Earlier this year, the D.C. council passed a legislation which was signed by Bowser, requiring all D.C. residents to buy health coverage from the D.C. Health Link or pay taxes. At an event in Freedom Plaza to celebrate the start of Obamacare’s annual open enrollment period this month, along with Mila Kofman, the head of the District’s health insurance exchange, D.C. Health Link, Bowser declared the open enrollment period “Get Covered, Stay Covered” months. The mayor noted that “residents should visit [D.C. Health Link’s website] to shop for and compare health insurance.” Bowser earns an annual salary of $200,000 and the council members’ salary is $140,600 per year, according to the public records. While the mayor and the council ask residents to buy health coverage without a subsidy, they themselves refuse to do so, the Federalist claims. “If Bowser wishes to abide by the D.C. values she campaigned on, she and the council members should give up their subsidies and buy health insurance just like ordinary residents do,” wrote Christopher Jacobs, the  founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, a policy consulting firm based in Washington. “If they find that task too difficult or costly, then perhaps they should repeal the exact same requirement they put on everyone else.”