Imagine an alternate universe in which members of both parties work together to develop changes to the Affordable Care Act to make the law work more efficiently, cover more Americans, and cost the government less.
I know it’s ludicrous to even propose this in these embattled times, especially with Republican lawmakers’ heads stuck firmly in the sand, but ideas on how to improve the ACA are out there. Democratic lawmakers would be wise to push them publicly in easy sound bites, if for no other reason than to reinforce the notion of how stubborn Republicans are and how hard the GOP is working against the interests of the American people while Democrats are trying to help.
When he couldn’t get 50 GOP votes for the Senate version of Trumpcare, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had no choice but to delay action. He bemoaned the fact that—horrors—he might have to work with Democrats on health care legislation. According to a Politico story:
Failing to repeal the law would mean the GOP would lose its opportunity to do a partisan rewrite of the law that could scale back Medicaid spending, cut Obamacare’s taxes and repeal a host of industry mandates.
Instead, Republicans would be forced to enter into bipartisan negotiations with Democrats to save failing insurance markets.
McConnell delivered a similar warning Monday to Republican senators at his leadership meeting and to top GOP staffers, warning that Democrats will want to retain as much of Obamacare as possible in a bipartisan negotiation, according to Republican aides.
“If we fail, we’re going to be negotiating with [Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer,” said one Republican staffer.
Schumer has made an offer to do just that, and so have Democrats in the House. As Schumer said in the Senate this week, according to a story on Morning Consult:
“So, I’d make my friends on the Republican side and President Trump an offer: Let’s turn over a new leaf. Let’s start over,” the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor as he called on GOP leaders to drop their push to repeal the taxes that help fund the Affordable Care Act, along with their proposed $772 billion cut to Medicaid.
Instead, Schumer said, all senators and Trump should come together for a “new bipartisan way forward on health care in front of all the American people” to discuss what the country is “really concerned about: premiums, deductibles, the costs and quality of health care.”
There may be little reason to believe the sincerity of Republican senators such as Susan Collins of Maine, who keeps floating the idea of working across the aisle to improve the ACA. Nevertheless, let’s see where such a fanciful approach might take us.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2teLjgX
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