Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Wednesday that she is “not very optimistic” that fixes to Obamacare will be taken up this year, according to a report in the Portland Press Herald.
Collins had orchestrated an agreement with Senate Republican leaders to add billions of dollars in funding to the Obamacare exchanges where people buy government subsidized health insurance. The move was projected to lower the price of premiums but ultimately failed as the parties disagreed about including language that would have kept the funds from going toward abortions. The bill reached an impasse and was not included as part of a long-term spending bill passed last month, as supporters had hoped.
Collins had arranged for the deal as part of her agreement to vote in favor of the tax bill, which repealed Obamacare’s fine for going uninsured beginning in 2019.
Despite believing the bill won’t be taken up this year, Collins said she isn’t giving up on fixing the law, the report says. Without fixes, she said, insurers would stop selling Obamacare coverage in rural areas where it is more expensive.
“I believe we have to do the ACA fixes or else the individual markets will collapse in some states,” Collins said, referring to the formal name for Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act. “Inevitably, we’re going to have to do something to shore up the individual market.”
Collins made the comments during an appearance at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she was receiving an award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in part for bucking her party and voting against legislation last year to repeal Obamacare. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona also joined Democrats in voting against the measure, causing it to fail by one vote.
