A health care measure proposed by House Republicans on Monday was panned by some Maine officials, praised by the state’s sole GOP congressman and given a positive review by the state’s senior senator.
Gov. Paul LePage told a Bangor radio station Tuesday that he is “very, very discouraged and disappointed” with the plan offered by GOP leaders in the House as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
In a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday, LePage said he hoped for a “conservative, free-market alternative” but instead “it appears congressional Republicans are still intent on catering to big-government lobbyists and politicians in states that took Obamacare’s welfare expansion bait.”
“I think they are punting the ball is what they are doing,” LePage told WVOM in his weekly interview with host Ric Tyler.
Taking an entirely different tack, U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a 2nd District Republican, said the new plan “will bring much-needed health insurance relief to the American people while keeping the promises made to them.”
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who is likely to play a crucial role in any GOP-sponsored bid to overhaul the nation’s health care system, called the House plan put forward this week “a good faith effort to tackle this crisis.”
Collins also said late Tuesday, though, that she also has “many questions” and concerns.
“We still lack any estimate of how many Americans stand to gain or lose coverage under this plan, as well as any estimate of how much it would cost,” she said in a prepared statement.
“In addition, I am also concerned about the effects of this plan on Mainers, particularly our seniors and those in the rural and lower-income parts of our state,” Collins said.
Collins said she needs to analyze its impact on Medicaid as part of her review of its provisions during the coming days.
She said she intends to continue “working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to solve the problems in our current health care system,” which she believes “is under considerable stress and will collapse if Congress does not act.”
Collins said the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has been in effect completely for three years but 30 million Americans “still do not have health insurance coverage.”
Moreover, she said, “Those who do have coverage are experiencing huge spikes in premium costs, deductibles, and co-pays.”
As a result, she said, “doing nothing is not an option.”
U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, however, said he was “very discouraged by this proposal.”
In a statement released Tuesday, King said, the measure “would more than likely force Maine seniors and low-income folks to pay higher costs and ultimately would result in more people being uninsured than we have now.”
The proposal, which may be voted on in committee this week, would repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a system of tax credits to help people buy private insurance on their own, rolling back the Medicaid expansion that provides coverage for more than 10 million people and slicing federal subsidies for many.
It would ax the mandate that everyone have insurance, and allows insurance companies to hike premiums by 30 percent for anyone who lets their coverage lapse and later wants to have it again.
“That’s not health care reform, and it’s certainly not what President Trump promised when he said that the bill would offer affordable coverage for everyone,” said King, a strong advocate of the Affordable Care Act.
King said lawmakers “should offer meaningful improvements” to the existing program instead of trying to “tear it down and jeopardize health insurance for tens of thousands of people in Maine.”
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a 1st District Democrat, said Obamacare “has saved thousands of Mainers from losing their lives or going bankrupt simply because they got sick.”
“Republicans have had seven years to come up with an alternative health care plan that preserves the progress we’ve made under the ACA — one that would not take us back to a time when only those who had employer-sponsored insurance or a clean bill of health could get coverage,” she said.
“But after all of this time, they’ve come up with a plan that will cost older Americans up to five times more, charge the uninsured 30 percent more to buy coverage, defund Planned Parenthood, cut Medicaid significantly, and still has no price tag,” Pingree said in a statement issued late Monday.
Poliquin, however, said “tens of thousands of Mainers are suffocating under the spiking Obamacare monthly premiums, co-pays and deductibles, while other health insurance options continue to shrink. Congress must act to fix this.”
He said the measure proposed by House leaders “will retain coverage for those with pre-existing health conditions; make sure insurance companies sell health insurance to everyone who wants it; and offer to keep young adults on their parents’ policies until age 26.”
Collins said the House measure, which President Donald Trump endorsed, has been changed “in positive ways” since its earlier versions.
She said she is encouraged “that the House bill maintains many of the current system’s important consumer protections, including: no medical underwriting for preexisting conditions, no lifetime or annual limits, and the ability of children to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26.”
In addition, Collins said, she is glad “that in contrast to earlier drafts, there is a cap on the tax credits that will prevent the wealthiest Americans from receiving subsidies.”
Collins and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., have their own bill before the Senate which takes quite a different approach to resolving the problems Republicans see in the Obamacare program that serves millions of Americans.
But she has expressed a willingness all along to consider any ideas that would accomplish her goal of revamping the federal government’s role in health care without throwing out popular Obamacare reforms and leaving constituents in worse shape than they are now.
“This new plan will bring Maine’s positive experience with health insurance reform to the national stage,” Poliquin said, and “remove impediments in the Obamacare law that prevent insurance companies from offering an array of plans at different prices.”
“We want the young and the old, those in good health and those facing health challenges all to be able to afford the health insurance plans that fit their needs,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure everyone has access to health care when they need it.”
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