Washington Times (DC)
June
7, 2018
Democrats left little doubt Wednesday that heath care will
be their signature issue in the mid-term contests, betting the GOP's decision
to weaken Obamacare as part of its tax overhaul will give them a winning
platform to run on while vulnerable senators are tethered to Capitol Hill this
August.
Senate Republican leaders this week said they are
canceling most of their summer vacation to stay and work on confirming
President Trump's nominees and to make headway on the annual spending bills.
But Minority Charles E. Schumer said Democrats will try to
turn August into a referendum on health care, demanding action to solve rising
Obamacare premiums.
Democrats say the GOP's move to scrap the 2010 health
law's "individual mandate" is fueling the premium increases. They say
taxpayer funding and government options are the answer.
They're demanding action on five ideas: letting the
federal government use its authority under Medicare to negotiate down the cost
of drugs; enhancing Obamacare's tax credits and help for out-of-pocket costs;
funding a federal reinsurance program; letting people buy into Medicare before
they reach age 65; and creating incentives for 17 holdouts states to expand
Medicaid to people making 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
"The number one thing Americans want is health care,
and we Democrats will spend August recess focusing on that issue, and forcing
Republicans to cast votes or deny votes on those important issues," Mr.
Schumer said. "It's a great opportunity, not just for Democrats, not just
for Republicans, but for America."
The push sets up a direct clash with the Trump
administration and its GOP allies, who insist Obamacare is collapsing under its
own weight.
The administration is finalizing rules that allow trade
groups buy "association plans" across state lines, and letting people
hold "short-term plans" for a full year, instead of the three-month
cap imposed by President Obama in 2016.
The plans do not have to comply with Obamacare's strict
coverage rules, meaning healthy people who've been priced out of Obamacare
might see them as a more affordable option.
"Association heath plans will actually bring down the
cost of insurance for the 28 million people left out," Health Secretary
Alex Azar said in a tense exchange Wednesday with Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia
Democrat who said the administration's moves are spooking Obamacare insurers,
forcing constituents to pay more.
Even though Republicans failed to repeal Obamacare, Mr.
Trump says scrapping the mandate to hold insurance still took a big bite out of
the law and should be celebrated as a major GOP achievement.
Yet it comes with politics risks.
About two-third of voters told a recent CBS/YouGov poll
they want their candidates this year to talk about health care — a bigger share
than any other topic — and six in 10 Americans told the Kaiser Family
Foundation this year that the GOP is now responsible for Obamacare, after its
repeal debate last year.
Insurers say the mandate, while it may not have met
Democrats' lofty enrollment goals, did goad healthy people into the
marketplace. Without them, insurers expect to raise rates to cover costlier
customers.
"Insurers have attributed approximately half of their
requested rate increases to the risks they see resulting from its repeal,"
New York Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo said Friday in
announcing that insurers requested an average rate increase of 24 percent for
2019.
Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser
foundation, said insurers had finally figured out the individual insurance
markets under Obamacare and the country would likely have seen only modest
premium hikes before the GOP's changes.
"How premium increases play in the election is
whether Democrats can get the message across to voters that Republican policies
are pushing premiums up in 2019, or whether Republicans can convince the public
that the ACA is failing," he said. "This will be a spin battle as the
election approaches and more premium increases become public, but so far it
seems like Democrats have the upper hand."
Fighting for a foothold, Mr. Azar said Wednesday the
problem is Obamacare's own design, since taxpayer subsidies chase rising
premiums.
"There's no incentive for insurance companies in any
way to contain their cost increases," Mr. Azar told the House Education
and Workforce Committee.
Senators tried this spring to craft a bipartisan
stabilization plan that would have freed up billions of dollars in
"cost-sharing" payments to insurers and "reinsurance" money
to subsidize pricey customers, so everyone else could pay less.
That fell through when Democrats balked over pro-life
language that was more stringent than what was included in the original
Obamacare.
Senate Health Committee Lamar Alexander says legislative
approaches are dead this year, so states and the administration should find
ways to cut costs.
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