Republicans can repeal and replace Obamacare as soon as January now that they have the House, the Senate and the White House at their fingertips, but Senate Democrats aren’t so sure they can actually follow through.
After years of Republican campaign ads railing against Obama’s signature health care law, rumors of death panels and fear mongering over government-controlled health care, Democrats are waiting for Republicans to unveil their big repeal and replace plan.
“They know it’s something they need to deliver on and Trump’s already backing off,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH-D). “I don’t think they’ve ever considered that they might actually have to make decisions.”
Already, Republicans have tried to manage expectations. The chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), warned last week it could take years before a full repeal and replace plan is implemented. And Republicans aren’t eager to talk about the specifics of how they actually plan to overhaul a health care law and not leave millions in the lurch.
President-elect Donald Trump has tried to assuage concerns that he’d yank protections for people with pre-existing conditions by saying they’ll remain. But even that is a heavy lift for Hill Republicans. The solution for keeping premiums from skyrocketing while protecting people with pre-existing conditions was the individual mandate and Republicans won’t be keeping that.
Democrats believe Republicans don’t have an alternative because they too know there are political and policy risks associated with committing to an actual plan.
“I got to see replace,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO). “I’ve threatened to bring bloodhounds to the Capitol to find replace. For years, I’ve been looking for replace. I’ve looked in committee rooms, I’ve looked in hearing rooms, I’ve looked under desks, I’ve looked in closets. There has never been a replace.”
McCaskill challenged Trump and Republicans “to be honest” and actually come up with a plan rather than just ragging on Obamacare.
“Let’s see how that would work for the millions of people who have certainty and security right now,” she said.
Democrats admit that Obamacare needs some fixing, but they are dubious Republicans can just do it themselves.
“I think they should fix Obamacare and call it a repeal and replace,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). “That is both the best public policy and the best politics for them. If they actually repeal the thing, people are going to suffer and they will suffer electorally.”
Republicans are balancing conflicting pressures. On the one hand, they have promised their constituents for nearly seven years that they would repeal and replace this law. They have little wiggle room to escape that now. They’ve gone through the motions to pass legislation repealing it dozens of times, but the president’s veto was a stop gap.
“I think what you have to look at is the individual market. That’s where the premiums skyrocket,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). “If you repeal it, it would be very hard to get something back in and I think you are going to have chaos on your hands. You are going to have people lose coverage. You are going to have sickness and concern. We’ve got 20 million people covered who weren’t covered before. What do they do?
Democrats also recognize that if Republicans mess with Obamacare, it will be theirs to own.
“This is one of those situations where the last person to touch it, owns it,” Schatz said. “And so now they have a responsibility to fix it. I think they are in no position to leave it alone. They just promised for so long that they were going to do it.”
They’ll increase premiums dramatically, rename it Trumpcare and their base will rejoice.
Which is funny as heck, because neither the president-elect nor his campaign manager said anything like that on the campaign trail.
Now they do have proposed replacement plans, should they actually be that stupid and kill the ACA. The problem is that each plan negatively affects their base (namely the elderly) and that’s obviously a problem.
Being thoughtful about the poor and the sick is good. In fact, it’s the essence of the Christian values that form the foundation of America’s majority religion.
Politically, it sounds like Democrats are worried they can’t give away my taxes to people who don’t contribute to the economy of this country. In that context, conservatives don’t care about leaving a million freeloaders in the lurch.
Understand, my characterization isn’t mine. It’s how Republicans interpret such statements, and frankly they have a point.
There are people close to me who depend on the ACA. For a time, I did too. It was well-run and a godsend. The point we should be making is that without the ACA or something like it, American businesses will be straining to handle the rapidly spiraling expense of a for-profit medical system that’s given a blank check to ramp up costs.
Those of us who’ve dealt with major medical expense can testify directly to the unbelievable cost of services we had no idea were being applied to our accounts and for how much. Now, Republicans want to sit idly by and let those costs be applied to the care of the poor and the sick with nobody’s knowledge or control? With just a bill being sent to… who?
You and I. That’s who. That’s their plan. That’s the news.
I would hold the snark. Even though they got most of the votes, they lost, and I would not put money on them winning this battle either. The first thing a general, NFL coach, or a political leader has to do after an unanticipated drubbing is figure out what it happened, and then figure out how to fix it. Sounding the usual klaxons has not worked for a while, so there is no reason for it to work now.
I would grab the popcorn too, but the ending of this movie has some dire consequences