Did members of Congress exempt themselves from complying with the health care reform laws?

A new poll released this month by the firm Public Policy Polling showed Congress to be less popular than colonoscopies, root canals or cockroaches.

To get a lower favorability rating than Congress, the Washington newspaper The Hill reported, they had to be compared to lobbyists, playground bullies, telemarketers and the Kardashians.

Maybe that explains why people keep forwarding a viral email making damaging claims about Congress.

Our friends at Snopes.com, the urban legend checker, say the email has been circulating in various forms since at least 2000. But it’s still circulating. A reader who recently received a version of the email forwarded it to PolitiFact Ohio asking about its accuracy.

It asserts that relatives of members of Congress and Congressional staffers "are exempt from having to pay back student loans" -- a ridiculously false claim that Snopes.com and our colleagues at FactCheck.org debunked and that we rated Pants on Fire.

We also rated as Pants on Fire its claim that members of Congress can "retire with the same pay after only one term."

But readers also asked about another claim in the email: that members of Congress "specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed, such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment, while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the healthcare reform, in all of its forms."

PolitiFact first examined the claim that members of Congress are exempt from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act in 2009, when the legislation was still under consideration in Congress.