New Numbers on What We're Paying to Insure Members of Our General Assembly

The American Independent reports that of the North Carolina General Assembly’s 170 members, 147 are enrolled in the State Health Plan, which provides them free health insurance at taxpayer expense. The American Independent is trying to identify those 147 by name, but at the moment both the State Health Plan and the state Office of Personnel are declining to release the names while the Attorney General’s office reviews whether the names of enrolled members are exempt from public records disclosure laws.

(Perhaps the Republican leadership in Raleigh will now want to rush through a new law exempting themselves from any public disclosure.)

Those 147 lawmakers receive health insurance that costs us the taxpayers $410 per month. On that basis, the total costs for the 147 amounts to $723,000 annually.

Which explains, logically and coherently (right?), why all the Republican members of that body have (so far) voted to block the federal Affordable Health Care Act from taking effect in North Carolina.