A senior Democratic aide told the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent that without an administrative fix for people who are losing their existing individual health insurance policies — which the White House is reportedly searching for — it will be hard to maintain Democratic opposition to a House GOP bill that would seek to solve the problem.
The House is expected to vote Friday on a bill from Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) titled the “Keep Your Health Plan Act.” House Democratic leadership has said it would oppose the bill, but, as some Senate Democrats proposed their own fix, the aide told the Washington Post that it might be hard for the House Democratic caucus to hold the line as public pressure to find a fix mounts.
The aide portrayed the endorsement by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) of a similar bill from Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) as making it more difficult for House Democrats to oppose the Upton bill.
“Now that Feinstein has broken off, that makes it even more important that House Democrats stay together as much as possible — to keep Senate Ds from caving,” the aide told the Post. But the aide adds, in a reference to this week’s House action: ”We need an administrative fix that works before the vote.”
