Time to Start Over!

By STEVE FINDLAY The CBO’s analysis of the House and Senate health bills should kill them both—permanently. Republicans should go back to the drawing board and work with Democrats in both the House and Senate to achieve bipartisan fixes to the ACA/Obamacare marketplaces for 2018 and 2019. That is the far and away the best thing to do from a policy and political perspective.   The vast majority of Americans would stand up and cheer. Two polls out this week, for example, add to previous surveys showing deeply low public support for the Republican bills. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found that just 12 percent of Americans overall support the Senate Republican plan, including only 26 percent of Republicans. Similarly, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found 17 percent in favor overall, with Republican support at 35 percent. Just 25 percent of respondents in the latter poll say the want Congress to repeal the ACA completely—consistent with other polls since late 2016. Trump has suggested a bipartisan path several times in recent months, although there’s no evidence he ever reached out to Democrats and he just as frequently demonized them as “obstructionists.” That Trump does not now see that he’d likely be hailed a hero if he brought the two sides together on this issue is a failure of judgment and leadership, in my view. Recognizing the importance of optics to this President, even Obama has said Trump and Congress can call whatever emerges a “repeal” of ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs