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Webster
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Jan 4 2017, 02:32 AM
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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MSN News: Dems & GOP To Huddle Over Fate Of Obamacare

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With Republicans in the new Congress moving swiftly to repeal a health care law they have long criticized as expensive and ineffective, outnumbered Democrats are unifying around a message that casts the GOP as disorganized and the reforms as misunderstood – arguments both sides are expected to hone during dueling strategy sessions Wednesday on Capitol Hill. It's unclear what Democrats with few legislative options can do to protect the law, but President Barack Obama – during a rare trip to the Capitol – is expected to discuss ways to strengthen the law and to warn how repeal without a replacement plan would create chaos, according to a White House official.
"[Democrats] realize the die is cast on repeal," says Lanhee Chen, a former adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign and director of domestic policy studies at Stanford University. "They will try to make it as painful for Republicans as they can."
Repeal is already in motion. Republicans on Tuesday introduced a spending measure that will allow them to defund portions of Obamacare through a procedural tool called budget reconciliation, which requires approval of a simple majority rather than the 60 votes typically needed to pass most legislation in the upper chamber.
GOP lawmakers are still working out if and how long repeal will be delayed and haven't settled on details of a replacement plan, though several have pointed to the "Better Way" outline that Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has put forward. It encourages the use of health savings accounts, emphasizes selling health insurance across state lines and distributes Medicaid to states through block grants.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence will meet with Republicans on Wednesday to discuss repeal, but much of the rhetoric up to now has been scattered. Some Republican lawmakers seek a total rollback and others are proposing partial changes. President-elect Donald Trump called Obamacare a "total disaster" on the campaign trail but has shifted his own stance on the issue, suggesting after his election that he would be willing to consider keeping some of the popular provisions of the law.
Democrats are using this opening as evidence to coalesce around a message that says Republicans are set to create chaos in the health care system. They point to studies like that of the left-leaning Urban Institute, which says repeal would throw 30 million people off health insurance. "I think a lot of people are terrified, and I think their fears are legitimate," says Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. "If you repeal and delay, it'll still cause massive chaos because of the uncertainty."
Republicans have countered that the point of creating a delay is to allow input from lawmakers of both parties so that consensus can be reached, noting that Obamacare was passed without a single Republican vote.
If Republicans are successful at repealing parts of the health care law, they likely will need to work to convince Americans that the replacement plan they offer will mean better, less expensive health care. Democrats, meanwhile, are making a last-ditch effort to help voters understand how the health care law offers benefits that didn't exist before.
"A whole range of things that are a patient's bill of rights will be eliminated for everyone," says Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. "The reality is that folks don't realize that a lot of the new protections they have are due to the Affordable Care Act."
During a conference call Monday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that if she could do something differently with regard to Obamacare she would "message it in a much stronger way." "I would just say to the American people: Take a second look," she said.
Polls suggest both parties have some work ahead of them. According to a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, more people view Obamacare unfavorably than favorably, but a large percentage support specific provisions, including allowing children to stay on a parent's health insurance plan until the age of 26. Polls also show about a quarter of Americans want to see Trump and the next Congress repeal Obamacare, less than 20 percent want them to scale back the reforms and 30 percent would like to see the law expanded.
Spiro says that people view the law negatively because of the political battles Republicans have waged against it. "They have said things that aren't true about it and have tried to obstruct it at every turn," he says.
Republicans have seized on unfavorable outcomes from Obamacare as evidence to support their conclusion that the law has failed. Insurers are fleeing the marketplaces that allow most people without employer insurance to buy tax-subsidized coverage, consumers have faced unexpected costs and patients have complained that they cannot access the doctors or hospitals they want.
"Everybody knows it's not working," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in an interview with Fox Business News in December. "Something has to be done. This has been a train wreck from the beginning and the American people know it, which is why they came out in such big numbers in November."
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip, said on the House floor Tuesday that Obamacare was "one of the big reasons Democrats find themselves in the minority."
GOP lawmakers also are using statements prominent Democrats have made about the law, such as a quote from Minnesota's Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, who said the law was "no longer affordable to increasing numbers of people" and former President Bill Clinton, who called Obamacare the "craziest thing in the world."
Dayton expressed regret over how his statement was used and Clinton walked back his statements, but that hasn't stopped Trump from citing the material.
"People must remember ObamaCare just doesn't work, and it is not affordable - 116% increases (Arizona). Bill Clinton called it 'CRAZY,'" he tweeted Tuesday.
He followed that up soon after with: "The Democrat Governor.of Minnesota said 'The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is no longer affordable!' - And, it is lousy healthcare."
Comments like these demonstrate the balancing act that will be ahead for Democrats.
"I think that as Democrats we responsibly want to fix problems when they arise and we aren't going to deny problems that exist," Spiro says. "That's not inconsistent with touting the benefits of the law."
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