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Matt Anderson/iStock(WASHINGTON) — In an effort by Democrats to keep health care in the headlines, a non-binding resolution condemning the Trump administration’s support of a federal lawsuit that could overturn the Affordable Care Act will go to a vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Additionally, House and Senate Democrats will rally on Tuesday morning in front of the Supreme Court to promote resolutions calling for the Department of Justice to reverse its position in the Texas v. U.S. lawsuit.
“Americans are facing higher health care costs than ever, but this administration’s lawsuit would drive up prices and put coverage out of reach for thousands of Texas families,” Rep. Colin Allred, a co-author of the resolution, said. “I’m proud to lead this resolution and to assure Americans that this Congress will not allow people with pre-existing conditions to go back to the days where they could be thrown off their health care just because they got sick.”
Since last Thursday, Trump has pointed at a trio of senators — John Barrasso, Bill Cassidy and Rick Scott — “to take a look” and “form a really great plan” to replace “Obamacare.”
After Republicans failed to repeal and replace the health care law in 2017, despite boasting GOP majorities in both chambers of Congress, those three senators acknowledged the 2019 political reality that replacing the law would require bipartisan support — a legislative pitch Democrats are uneager to join.
“It’s going to need bipartisan support because Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House,” Barrasso, R-Wyo., said on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday. “We are absolutely continuing to work on this, realizing that it has to be bipartisan.”
“I know it’s going to be tough. I look forward to, you know, to seeing what the president’s going to put out,” Scott, R-Fla., said, punting back to the White House in an appearance Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation. “But with Nancy Pelosi in the House, it’s going to be tough to get something done.”
A spokesman for Cassidy said in a statement, “Whatever is put forward will be a collaborative effort that will help make health care more affordable and accessible, while keeping the power over health care decisions in the hands of patients and taxpayers.”
Republicans have also ginned up concern over the progressive pipe dream to enact Medicare for all, another far-fetched gambit that stands zero chance of becoming law with a Republican president and Senate majority.
“My concern is that the biggest threat that I see to the freedom and the economy of this country is this complete government takeover of health care, which is where the Democrats are going, this Medicare for all,” Barrasso told NBC.
Last week, in a scramble following the DOJ’s announcement, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with ranking Republican members from committees of health care jurisdiction “on making sure we have our health care bill out there.”
“We’re working on it right now,” McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday. “I think health care is an important issue for all Americans. We want to make sure that all Americans have the ability to have greater choice, lower costs and higher quality and that’s what we’re working towards.”
On a Feb. 6 conference call with donors, McCarthy blamed the GOP’s national standing with voters on health care for his party’s defeat in last fall’s midterm elections.
“Republicans carried the economy overwhelmingly. We carried even immigration. We even carried the social issues. But there was one issue we lost overwhelmingly. It was health care by 66 points,” McCarthy said, according to an audio recording obtained by the Washington Post.
But visiting the Capitol last Tuesday, Trump predicted, “The Republican party will soon be known as the party of health care.”
After coming up short in the 2017 quest to repeal “Obamacare,” a senior Senate Republican member of McConnell’s leadership team told ABC News that the GOP conference has zero appetite for another run at the health care law.
Sen. Susan Collins, who was one of three GOP senators to vote to kill the repeal effort in 2017, agreed that the president’s renewed interest in repeal left her “very disappointed.”
“It seems to me the cart is before the horse here,” Collins, R-Maine, said. “If he has some good ideas for improving the ACA or our system of health care in this country then those initiatives need to be put forth first before you try to strike down the entire ACA.”
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