Arkansas governor: We have to ‘engage’ in healthcare reform, not ‘wash our hands’ of it

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) on Wednesday said political leaders need to continue to work on healthcare reform.

During an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Hutchinson said governors have been pushing lawmakers to listen to them for a number of months on the issue of healthcare.

“We’ve got the greatest level of experience in actually what’s happening in our states,” he said.

{mosads}Hutchinson said governors have encouraged lawmakers to make some changes to the Senate GOP’s healthcare bill, which collapsed earlier this week.

“Many of them were adopted, but in the end, it was hard to bring people together,” he said. 

“The message that I have is: They need to continue their path of reform and not give up.”

President Trump on Tuesday said he’s willing to “just let ObamaCare fail,” adding he and Republicans are not going to “own it.”

When asked about Trump’s comments, Hutchinson said people always hold political leaders accountable. These leaders, he added, have a responsibility to address problems and fix systems that aren’t working.

It’s hard for people to “understand the complexities, the vote, why people can’t come together on this,” he added.

“But you got to figure out a way to do it,” he said.

“And so it’s not sufficient to say we’re going to wash our hands of this. We’ve got to engage in it.”

The Senate’s healthcare bill collapsed earlier this week after multiple GOP senators came out against the proposal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that Republicans would look to move forward with their plan to repeal ObamaCare, even as the repeal-only plan has already faced opposition by some GOP senators.