Congress realizes health care isn’t partisan issue
Published 9:34 pm Friday, March 30, 2018
It took a multibillion crisis, but at least Congress has realized health care isn’t a partisan issue.
President Donald Trump’s decision to cut off insurers from cost-reducing federal subsidies will inevitably force insurance companies to raise their premiums, leaving Louisianans who earn too much to qualify for subsidies footing the bill.
Also footing a rather sizable bill will be the federal government. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that doing away with insurer subsidies will increase the federal deficit by nearly $200 billion over the next decade by increasing net marketplace subsidies.
These sobering figures put steam behind a nonpartisan bill led by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, and Patty Murray, D-Washington, that would shore up Obamacare markets temporarily by restoring the payments for two years.
The bill seeks to stabilize premiums and cut the budget deficit, and would notably allow people to buy health-care plans with less-generous benefits at lower prices — high on the Conservative agenda.
It even managed to get Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, and Governor John Bel Edwards on the same page. Edwards partnered with a bipartisan group of 10 governors recently in a letter to Washington leaders urging them to restore payments or risk crippling the market.
“I think it’s fantastic that Bill Cassidy and John Bel Edwards have found an area of health-care policy they agree on,” said Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Program, as reported by The Advocate. “Clearly this is an issue that should go beyond partisan politics because it’s going to affect premiums for so many people in Louisiana and across the country.”
Trump’s opinion on the bill has fluctuated, but wherever he lands will likely determine the bill’s success — many in the GOP aren’t keen on voting against him.
Still, the bill brings hope to what this year has seemed like a losing game. The term “bipartisan” itself evokes a childlike belief that a greater good will reconcile our seemingly irreconcilable differences.
And maybe it can. No one’s claiming the health care system is working, so no one should turn up their nose at fixing it. It’s heartening to know that some of our elected officials get that and are putting the average citizen first. Time will tell where Trump stands on the issue. Let’s hope we can say the same of him.
