GOP senator: Party could lose ObamaCare ‘war’

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is warning that the Republican Party will “lose the whole war” against ObamaCare, unless the GOP quickly coalesces around a plan to replace it.

Sasse said too many Republicans remain divided on a replacement strategy with only a few months before a major Supreme Court case that could gut a central piece of the law and suddenly make healthcare unaffordable for more than 7 million people.

“Unless those of us who oppose ObamaCare unite behind an approach that offers Americans a better alternative, we could lose the whole war,” Sasse wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday.

The freshman senator said he will be proposing his own plan that involves a stopgap solution in case of a plaintiff victory in King v. Burwell, which involves ObamaCare subsidies in 37 states.

He said Congress needs to offer “immediate, targeted protection” to those who would lose their subsidies — an idea that remains controversial to many Republicans, some of whom would rather take no action.

But doing nothing would be dangerous politically, particularly ahead of a 2016 election in which most GOP senators up for reelection represent states that could lose subsidies.

“The course of simple inaction is nearly guaranteed to enshrine ObamaCare eternally,” he wrote.

Sasse follows Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) as the latest Senate Republican to say he is crafting his own plan. Three House Republican panel chairmen, led by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), are also working on a plan.

Republicans largely agree that Congress should not simply rewrite the text to make the subsidies legal. But the party lacks a consensus about how to deal with the fallout, both in the short term and long term, and which area of government should be responsible for those fixes.

Sasse warned that, if Congress does not present a plan, states will be forced to accept a solution from the administration that allows them to keep subsidies flowing for millions of people.

“When Team Obama then turns its guns on the holdout states and their 37 governors, the political pressure to adopt ObamaCare will be crippling. I fear that most governors will fold,” he wrote. “If governors cave, ObamaCare is never going away.”