Democrats Blame Trump of Sabotaging the Nation's Health System
WASHINGTON D.C. - Democrats accused President Trump of trying to sabotage the nation's health-care system through his decision to stop payments to insurers that are meant to shore up the system, while Republicans countered Sunday that Trump is just pushing for a hard bargain.
Trump announced his decision on Friday after months of criticizing the payments as an insurance industry bailout. This will throw into doubt the private insurance exchanges that are part of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats vowed to use year end negotiations on the federal agency budgets as a leverage point to reinstate the payments, promising to pin the political blame on Republicans if premiums skyrocket next year.
Senator Patty Murphy is against Trump's decision. He said “This is the equivalent of healthcare arson. He is literally setting the entire health-care system on fire just because the president is upset that the United States Congress won’t pass a repeal bill”. But Senator Lamar Alexander is “encouraging him to get a bipartisan deal that would have some flexibility”.
The standoff comes as Trump heads to a potentially pivotal meeting Monday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, with whom he has publicly clashed since the Senate’s unsuccessful vote in late July to repeal the ACA. Advisers say the one on one talk is meant to get both sides on the same page moving into the critical fall and early winter legislative session as they tackle such as health care, immigration and federal spending, among others.
Alexander and Murray have been in negotiations over ways to stabilize the ACA markets ever since Republicans lost their bid to repeal, almost outright, the 2010 health-care law. The bipartisan duo have signaled that they are close to a deal, but Republicans have been demanding some changes to the ACA and conservatives in the House have grown very wary of the talks, vowing to oppose anything they view as a bailout. Some moderate Republicans, as well as GOP governors who support the ACA, view those payments as critical and contend that without them, millions would lose insurance and that those who do not would pay significantly more for coverage.
All of this is likely to come to a head in the December negotiations over funding federal agencies, one of several combustible issues that Trump and lawmakers must deal with or else risk shutting down the federal government during the holiday season.
