The renewed call by Democrats for a public option health plan has steeled Republican resistance to expanding the healthcare law, suggesting 2017 may bring nothing but more gridlock when it comes to fixing the problems that even Democrats now admit are plaguing Obamacare.
Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have called for repealing the law and replacing after President Obama made a new push this week to expand his signature law by adding a government-funded healthcare option long sought by Democrats.
While Obama was delivering a speech promoting expansion of the law in Miami on Thursday, McConnell was simultaneously dismissing the idea.
“President Obama’s & Democrats’ answer to Obamacare’s massive problems? More Obamacare and more government,” McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted during Obama’s speech.
Ryan responded to Obama’s proposal with a statement about the House GOP’s plan to dump Obamacare and replace it with “patient-centered reforms,” such as allowing health insurance purchasing across state lines, among other measures.
While Democrats have struggled to defend the law amid major failures in the healthcare exchanges, Republicans have pointed to the flaws as evidence it should be eliminated entirely.
“This law can’t be fixed,” Ryan, R-Wis., said last week.
But while the GOP will block an expansion of the law, it’s unlikely the GOP will be able to repeal it. Recent polls suggest the federal government will be divided again next year, which would make it nearly impossible to either repeal Obamacare or pass a new healthcare legislation, an issue that significantly divides the two parties.
Republicans will likely lack the numbers needed to repeal the law in Congress and come up with the two-thirds majorities needed to override a presidential veto if Hillary Clinton wins in November as polls suggest.
Republicans may also lose the majority in the Senate, which would eliminate any chance of an Obamacare repeal measure clearing Congress because Senate Democrats would never allow it. But even if the GOP keeps the Senate, their majority is likely to be so thin that it will make it even harder than it is today to pass anything.
If Clinton wins, she’ll face the same hurdles, and will likely have a tough time passing any of the healthcare reforms outlined in her campaign platform. Among those are a promise to “defend and expand” Obamacare.
Clinton has pledged she will make a public option “possible,” and she supports allowing people over the age of 55 to become eligible for Medicare. Democrats believe a public option and earlier eligibility for Medicare will provide more choices for people purchasing insurance but who are now facing a dwindling number of insurance options under Obamacare.
She’s backed by Democrats like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has long favored the plan and helped to pass it years ago in the House version of Obamacare legislation.
“Every law needs small tweaks, but we have to keep our eye on the objective of the ACA,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told the Washington Examiner. “How do we continue to make coverage affordable and further lower the number of individuals who do not have access to health care? We will examine all options in light of that objective.”
Democrats are poised to pick up as many as 25 seats in the House, according to generous estimates, but few believe the party will do well enough on Nov. 8 to capture the more than 30 seats needed to take back the majority and act on those plans.
With Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., likely to remain in charge of the House, expanding Obamacare would be almost impossible.
Ryan told the Examiner recently he won’t support legislation to repair Obamacare or stop what he called its “inevitable” failure, which now involves many insurance companies dropping out and leaving consumers with few choices or in some cases only one choice when they shop for Obamacare plans.
“No amount of tinkering around the margins was going to salvage Obamacare from imploding under its own weight,” Ryan said.
That means the Senate may be the public option’s best bet for Democrats. If Democrats are able to win back the gavel, Democrats could work with a Clinton White House to try to pass the public option, since they would at least have the power to schedule votes.
The incoming Democratic Leader, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, is co-sponsor of a bill that would create a public option health plan. The legislation has the support of 33 Democrats — a number that could increase after the election is over if Democrats increase their numbers in the Senate as pollsters predict.
But Senate Republicans were quick to point out that not even all Democrats back a public option. Thirteen Democrats refused to sign on to the public option bill, including Sen. Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate.
“There is bipartisan opposition to a new government plan,” Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell, told the Examiner. “The answer to a failed government plan is not more government, more taxes and more spending.”
Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action, a conservative advocacy group, said the public option will likely be out of reach for Congress but smaller changes will be debated to deal with the apparent downward spiral of insurance exchanges.
“The more likely the legislative fight will be over expanding subsidies or expanding choices,” Holler said.
