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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSusan Collins Moves The Goalposts (Again) On Her Health Care Demands
By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published JANUARY 4, 2018 4:31 PM
When Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) first announced she would support the GOP tax bill that killed Obamacares individual mandate, she insisted that three separate health care measures to prop up the Affordable Care Act and protect Medicare recipients be passed before she cast her vote. She then amended her demand, saying the bills had to pass before the tax bill came back from the House-Senate conference committee. She then insistedafter voting for the tax billthat the policies pass by the end of 2017. When it became clear that wasnt possible in the face of staunch opposition from House conservatives, she expressed confidence they would become law in January. Now, Collins is moving the goalposts yet again.
In an interview with Inside Health Policy published Thursday, Collins said she hopes the policies she proposed will pass and be implemented before 2019, when the repeal of the individual mandate is expected to shrink the individual insurance market by several million people and drive up premiums by at least 10 percent.
When the mandate is repealed in 2019, we must have other health care reforms in place in order to prevent further increases in the cost of health insurance, Collins office said in a statement. Senator Collins believes that averting these price spikes, particularly for low-income families, should be a goal that members of both parties can embrace.
One of the billsdubbed Alexander-Murray after its bipartisan Senate authorswould restore government subsidies to insurance companies, known as cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments, that the Trump administration cut off earlier this year. The other would send states $500 million in 2018 to set up a reinsurance or high-risk pool program, and then $5 billion a year for 2019 and 2020.
But it remains in dispute whether the two policies have any hope of passing Congress this yearconsidering prominent House members have characterized them as welfare and a bailout for insurance companiesor whether they would actually make in difference in stabilizing the health care market and lowering premiums.
On the first, the ship may have sailed.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/susan-collins-moves-the-goalposts-again-on-her-health-care-demands
SoCalMusicLover
(3,194 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)And take back ME-02. Then focus on ousting her.
BigmanPigman
(51,775 posts)the GOP hypocrites who voted for the Tax Scam knowing what it would do to the ACA and how it would bankrupt and eventually kill millions of Americans. Medicare and Social Security are next.
McCain, Corker, Flake, Collins are full of BS!
Freethinker65
(10,166 posts)She does not give a damn about her constituents in Maine or womens healthcare. She never did.
Blaukraut
(5,702 posts)RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)You fucked up, bigly, and now you need to lose your job.
jpak
(41,764 posts)Badly badly played.
You own this.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,261 posts)Okay, leadership won't support blah, blah, blah, but they promised their support of blah, blah...
The majority whip tells me that the caucus won't support blah, blah, but they MIGHT support blah...
Leadership has stripped blah from the bill, but they promised me that we'll take another look at it after the final vote...
Conniving or stupid, take your pick. Neither makes a good character trait for a Senator.
Response to DonViejo (Original post)
JDC This message was self-deleted by its author.
Skittles
(153,634 posts)JDC
(10,185 posts)As angry as she makes me, I cannot be flip over that.
some time ago I actually googled to find out why she sounded so strange sometimes
dembotoz
(16,892 posts)only a dollar
plus tax
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Which hand do you expect will fill up first?
I really hope the people of Maine end any further political career for this hypocrite at the end of her present term.