What does the health care plan for the members of Congress consist of?

Before 2014, members of Congress could take part in the government-subsidized Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Under rules issued last year to implement the Affordable Care Act, members of Congress can now only receive employer contributions toward their health insurance if they enroll in a plan offered by the DC Health Link Small Business Market, which is run by the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority.

“The employer contribution is calculated using the statutory formula for health plans offered under FEHBP. …,” reads a Congressional Research Service report published in February. “According to the formula, the employer contribution is set at 72% of the weighted average of all FEHBP plan premiums, not to exceed 75% of any given plan’s premium.”

A selection of the lowest total monthly self-only premiums for gold-level plans available to members ages 27, 40 and 55 in 2014, followed by the government and employee contributions:

Aetna PPO — $324.16, $243.12, $81.04; $434.74, $326.06, $108.69; $772.72 $426.14 $346.58

CareFirst HMO — $226.27, $169.70, $56.57; $303.46, $227.60, $75.87; $539.38, $404.54, $134.85.

Kaiser HMO — $226.78, $170.09, $56.70; $303.75, $227.81, $75.94; $539.01, $404.26, $134.75.

United PPO — $256.85, $192.64, $64.21; $344.47, $258.35, $86.12; $612.27, $426.14, $186.13.

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Online: http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43194.pdf.

Chariot claims part of hoax

In reference to the Exodus from Egypt, have any remnants of the chariots or the horses or the soldiers’ armor or anything been found in the Red Sea?

No.

Several websites, both secular and religious, have over the years fallen for such claims, including photos purporting to show chariot wheels covered in sand or encrusted with coral.

But no archaeological evidence has been found to support the biblical Exodus narrative — the enslavement in Egypt, the plagues, the pursuit by the pharaoh’s army.

“The whole subject of the Exodus is embarrassing to archaeologists,” Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, a senior fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, wrote in The Jerusalem Post in April.

“The Exodus is so fundamental to us and our Jewish sources that it is embarrassing that there is no evidence outside of the Bible to support it.”

Several scholars say the biblical account could be based on a smaller-scale sojourn — fewer people trekking over a shorter stretch of time — thus explaining the lack of evidence.

University of Georgia professor Richard Elliott Friedman told Reform Judaism magazine that one possible group is the Levites.

“The Levites were members of the group associated with Moses, the Exodus, and the Sinai events depicted in the Bible,” he told the magazine last spring.

“In the Torah, Moses is identified as a Levite. Also, out of all of Israel only Levites had Egyptian names: Moses, Phinehas, Hophni, and Hur are all Egyptian names.”?

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The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.

(MGNonline)