Rep. Louie Gohmert says he's dropped his health coverage because it's too expensive under Obamacare.
AP
“Other people are going to see what I did when I looked into health insurance for my wife and me: that the deductible rate, it doubled, about $3,000 to $6,000, and our policy was going to go from about $300 to about $1,500 a month,” the Texas Republican said in a local radio interview Sunday, The Dallas Morning News reported. “I actually don’t have insurance right now, so thank you very much, Obamacare.”
Gohmert, an outspoken opponent of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, told the Morning News he couldn't afford to pay more than quadruple what he had been paying before.
“I lost my health care. I liked it OK, but I didn’t get to keep it,” Gohmert said. “I couldn’t afford to go up four or five times what I was paying and double my deductible, and so I’m better off with just setting money aside for health care and paying the penalty."
But as the Morning News noted, Gohmert is eligible for a nearly $950 monthly subsidy as a member of Congress, which he and other lawmakers have previously denounced as special treatment and which Gohmert vowed not to accept.
As the newspaper also reported, Gohmert is eligible for free outpatient care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a U.S. representative, though pays full price for in-patient treatment. He can also receive routine exams and certain tests at the U.S. Capitol's physician's office for a flat yearly fee. His wife is not eligible.
