Now that Congress is on recess, it is probably safe to get sick.
For the past seven years, the annual refrain of the Republican Party has been “repeal and replace.”
Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, once famously proclaimed that he “would pull out Obamacare root and branch.”
That was three years ago.
Republicans took control of the Senate that year.
They had taken control of the House of Representatives four years earlier, in 2010.
They have voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act i.e. Obamacare over sixty times before taking control of both houses of Congress and the White House.
Then, they got their wish, complete control of both houses of Congress and the White House.
You would have thought they would have had a plan ready.
The first bill which they called the American Health Care Act would have eliminated health insurance for twenty-three million Americans according to the Congressional Budget Office.
It would have reduced the budget deficit by about one-percent over ten years.
It passed by the narrowest of margins and advanced to the Senate.
Following the House vote, Trump invited the Republican members of the House that voted for it to the Rose Garden to celebrate its passage.
Shortly after that, he described the bill as “mean” and urged the Senate to soften it.
Who would vote for a “mean” health care bill?
We’ll get to that shortly.
The Senate revised and renamed the bill, calling it the “Budget reconciliation Act of 2017.”
The senators heeded Trump’s call to soften the bill by eliminating coverage for only twenty-two million people.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that forty-nine million people would be without coverage by 2026.
When it became apparent that there were not enough votes to pass the bill, the Senate took up a “skinny repeal” bill which would have eliminated the individual and employer mandates. It contained no provisions for pre-existing conditions or essential health care benefits.
This bill also failed when Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain voted against it.
McCain’s unexpected “no” vote made him the hero of the hour to opponents of the repeal and replace bills, which seemed unfair to me since both Collins and Murkowski had been steadfast in their opposition in the face of McConnell’s pressure tactics and Trump’s threats and at a time when the legislation appeared that it might pass.
Indeed, McConnell had crafted the legislation in secret without including any female members of his caucus, notwithstanding the fact that Planned Parenthood funding was an important component of the legislation.
It seems fitting that this chauvinism on his part may have further doomed his signature legislative project.
Although I refrain from blogging about local issues, we should return to the question of who would vote for a “mean” health care bill?
The answer is that five upstate Republican congressional representatives voted for it, ignoring the devastation it would wreak on the people living in their districts.
They are john Faso, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney, Thomas Reed and Chris Collins.
In Faso’s 19thDistrict, 101,385 people would lose their health care coverage.
In Stefanik’s 21st District, 83,463 people would lose their health care coverage.
In Tenney’s 21st District, 67,539 people would lose their health care coverage.
In Reed’s 23rd District, 79,904 people would lose their health care coverage.
In Collins 27th District, 124,954 people would lose their health care coverage.
If any of the bills passed, 3,114,079 New Yorkers would have lost their health care coverage.
Faced with a choice between representing the health and well-being of their constituents, and siding with the powers that be in Washington, they chose the latter.
At this writing, Trump is castigating McConnell for his failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act and demanding that Congress return try again.
What “mean” measure he has in mind remains a mystery.
If you’re one of those people who is covered under the Affordable Care Act, there are two things you should probably do.
The first is to get medical treatment for any condition you are suffering from.
The second is to pray that Congress doesn’t return to Washington any time soon