US Senators are working over the weekend for the first time since the government shutdown began more than a month ago, but hopes for a bipartisan agreement on how to end the crisis, and keep health care affordable for millions of Americans, appear to have dimmed as Republican senators float a toxic proposal for Democrats: repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare.
The impact on Americans from the longest federal government shutdown in history deepened Saturday, as federal workers went unpaid, airlines were forced to cancel flights and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits were delayed for 42 million Americans.
like Saturday session Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana initially welcomed a proposal made by Donald Trump on social media early Saturday, from his golf course in West Palm Beach, to replace subsidies with health savings accounts.
in Social function of truthTrump suggested that instead of meeting Democrats’ request to extend support for health insurance plans purchased through the PCA market, to pay for sharply rising premiums, Republicans should return to a bill to replace the Obama-era law, which failed during his first administration.
“I recommend that Senate Republicans send the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being sent to money-sucking insurance companies to bail out ObamaCare’s bad health care, directly to the people so they can afford much better health care,” Trump wrote.
Graham welcomed the similar proposal An alternative to Obamacare Introduced in 2017, writing On social media, “Trump’s recommendation that we stop sending tens of billions of dollars under Obamacare to money-sucking insurance companies, and instead send that money directly to people so they can afford better health care, is simply fantastic.”
“We’re going to replace this broken system with something better for the consumer,” Graham later said.
Cassidy, who co-authored Graham’s similar plan in 2017 as well He praised Trump’s proposal On social media, and I stood next To a huge bombing of Trump’s office while he was speaking on the Senate floor.
“I’m writing the bill now,” Scott to publish In response to Trump’s proposal. “We should prevent taxpayer money from going to insurance companies, and instead give it directly to Americans in HSA-style accounts, and allow them to buy the health care they want. This would increase competition and lower costs.”
None of the Republican senators appear to have grappled with the fact that consumers will still need to buy plans from the same insurers, or that GOP lawmakers would need the support of eight Democrats to reopen the government, and the idea of repealing Obamacare and replacing it with savings accounts is unlikely to win a single Democratic vote.
Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Representative from Massachusetts, subscriber Disturbed reaction to Trump’s proposal from Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote on social media: “You have to read between the lines here to imagine what President Trump is proposing. But, it sounds like it could be a plan for health accounts that could be used for insurance that doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions, which could create a death spiral in ACA plans that do.”
“In other words, the concept of Donald Trump’s health care plan is another cynical attempt to repeal Obamacare,” Warren commented. “It’s the same failed Republican plan that voters and Congress rejected. We can cut costs and open up government today by extending the ACA’s tax breaks.”
Senate Republican leaders have signaled their openness to the proposal emerging from a small group of moderate Democrats to end the shutdown in exchange for a vote later on Obamacare subsidies.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat who is leading talks among moderates, said Friday evening that Democrats “need another way forward” after Republicans rejected an offer from Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to reopen the government and extend support for a year.
Shaheen and others, negotiating among themselves and with some Republicans, have been discussing bills that would cover the costs of parts of the government — food aid, veterans programs, and the legislative branch, among others — and extend funding for everything else until December or January. The agreement would only come with a promise of future votes on health care, rather than a guarantee of expanded benefits.
It was not clear whether enough Democrats would support such a plan. Even with an agreement, Trump seems unlikely to support extending health benefits. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also said this week that he would not commit to a health vote.
Schumer insisted on Saturday that Republicans must accept a one-year extension of the benefits before negotiating the future of the tax breaks.
“Doing nothing is negligent because people will go bankrupt, people will lose insurance, and people will get sicker,” Schumer said in a speech. “This is what will happen if this Congress fails to act.”
Earlier, Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, said they need to stand strong after the landslide Democratic victories on Election Day.
One curious element of the Republican effort to signal that their party is working overtime to end the shutdown, even while Trump is playing golf in Florida, was a social media post on Saturday from Markwayne Mullen, a state senator from Oklahoma. Mullen to publish Four photos of him and two other Republican senators meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, with the caption: “Working over the weekend with President Donald Trump. It is always an honor to be in the Oval Office – I never take this opportunity to serve Oklahoma for granted.”
What Mullen failed to explain is that the photos were taken on Friday, before Trump left for a weekend golf trip at his resort in Florida. Mullen himself had previously posted one of the photos on Social media video Friday night.
The Associated Press contributed reporting