The public exchange that serves members of Congress and their aides wants the flexibility to treat Congress as if it were generous small employer rather than just another cheap one.

Mila Kofman, executive director of the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority, says her understanding is that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to treat Congress as if it had failed to give much support to its health plan, or had failed to get many employees to participate.

By putting Congress in the "employer with a bad health plan" category, CMS would require the district's DC Health Link exchange to start 2015 coverage open enrollment for members of Congress and their aides on Nov. 15, rather than Oct. 1, Kofman says.

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Allison Bell

Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor's insurance editor, previously was LifeHealthPro's health insurance editor. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Think_Allison.