Once the individual mandate was repealed, it seemed inevitable that the courts would find it unconstitutional. That will happen soon. It looks like the appeals court is ready to strike down part or all of the plan, although the Supreme Court will have the final say.
Republicans have a golden opportunity to replace it with something that does not involve big government. That doesn’t seem likely to happen.
With all the intervening years to plan a replacement, they apparently don’t have a plan on the ready. Even if they have a plan, Democrats will not work on a plan with Republicans and many Republicans will not cooperate with each other.
In comes liberal Republican Mitt Romney, a Trump hater, and the originator of the first Obamacare, Romneycare.
“I have a plan that I would be delighted to have Congress pick up and go forward with,” added Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) of a proposal to protect pieces of the law. “Necessity is the mother of acceptance. I hope that we reach that necessity and that would propel my proposal to see a good deal of support.”
He is currently working with liberal Republicans like Lamar Alexander and Chuck Grassley who will only work on a bipartisan plan [that Democrats will never accept].
We haven’t seen the plan and don’t know if it’s good or not, but he is a big government Republican.
DEMOCRATS AND SOME REPUBLICANS WON’T APPROVE ANY PLAN
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who has jurisdiction over health care reform, said the chances of putting together something to replace ObamaCare in this Congress are “slim to nil.”
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Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Health Committee, said there’s no trust between the parties on the issue after she says Republicans “sabotaged” a bill she negotiated with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in the last Congress to fund cost-sharing reduction subsidies.
“I think the trust is gone on both sides,” she said. “I’m willing to talk to them, but we’re not going to take away the protections that people in this country expected and that everyone campaigned on.”
Romney is responsible for Obamacare. His Massachusetts Romneycare, a big government takeover, was probably the model for Obamacare.
The Romneycare law mandated that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a minimum level of insurance coverage, provided free and subsidized health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% and 300%, respectively, of the federal poverty level (FPL) and mandated employers with more than 10 full-time employees provide healthcare insurance.
It wasn’t as bad as Obamacare.
ROMNEY ADMITTED ROMNEYCARE WAS OBAMACARE
In an article in the Boston Globe, Romney credits the late Staples founder Thomas Stemberg with pushing him toward implementing universal health care in the state in 2006.
Romney said that shortly after he was elected, Mr. Stemberg asked him why he ran for governor. Romney said he told him that he wanted to help people, and Mr. Stemberg replied that if he really wanted to help, he should give everyone access to health care, which Romney said he hadn’t really considered before.
“Without Tom pushing it, I don’t think we would have had Romneycare,” Romney said. “Without Romneycare, I don’t think we would have Obamacare. So, without Tom, a lot of people wouldn’t have health insurance.”
Romney, a globalist Republican, never withdrew his support for Romneycare, although he claimed he opposed Obamacare.
ROMNEY IN THE LEAD
Romney is now taking the lead here.
Romney is reportedly working with Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and consulting closely with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Texas, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., spoke about being prepared if the courts strike the current health care law — they’ve had more than a decade to offer an alternative plan.
“If there’s one thing we learned from the ObamaCare fight two years ago: We better be prepared in advance with more specificity as to what our plans our,” Capito said of the failed effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare in 2017.
In the end, we face the same logjam we faced last time, if Obamacare falls, Republicans won’t be able to get a replacement in place before the election and they will get creamed by Democrats and the media as 20 million Americans are dropped from insurance plans.
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