Ohio Gov. John Kasich said it is a “mistake” for Senate Republicans to move forward with their vote Tuesday to start debate on a healthcare bill and called on lawmakers to instead pursue a bipartisan plan to address Obamacare.
“The American people will come out on the losing end if Senate Republicans try to force through a new healthcare proposal with no bipartisanship, transparency or open dialogue,” the Republican governor said Monday. “Until Congress can step back from political gamesmanship and come together with a workable, bipartisan plan, it is a mistake for the Senate to proceed with a vote on Tuesday and force a one-sided deal that the American people are clearly against.”
The Senate is expected to vote on a motion to proceed to debate on the House-passed healthcare bill Tuesday. If the motion passes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will strip the House bill out and replace it with either a separate plan repealing and replacing parts of Obamacare or a bill the Senate approved in 2015 that would dismantle Obamacare. Under a repeal-only bill, Obamacare would remain for two years, giving lawmakers time to draft a replacement.
It’s not clear which bill McConnell will bring up if the procedural motion passes.
Senate Republicans have struggled to coalesce around a plan dismantling Obamacare. Conservatives say the repeal-and-replace bill, called the Better Care Reconciliation Act doesn’t do enough to repeal Obamacare, while centrists are worried about patient coverage and the measure’s rollback of Medicaid funding. Kasich was one of 31 governors who expanded Medicaid coverage under Obamacare.
After it was clear that McConnell didn’t have the votes to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act last week, the Senate majority leader said he would revive the 2015 bill to repeal Obamacare, but those efforts were quickly doomed after three Republicans—Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—announced their opposition to the plan.
No matter the outcome of Tuesday’s vote, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has committed to holding hearings to explore how to stabilize Obamacare’s individual market, which Republicans and Democrats agree needs to happen.
Kasich, too, said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should come together to draft a bipartisan plan to fix Obamacare.
“They should make a commitment to bring Republicans and Democrats together to work openly on Obamacare’s failings, which we all agree need to be fixed,” he said. “The sooner we can get to a bipartisan effort, the sooner we can begin to do what’s right for the American people.”
