Senate Dem: ‘We’ve got to stop the administration from sabotaging the private insurance market’

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on Tuesday said Congress needs to prevent the administration from “sabotaging the private insurance market.”

“We’ve got to stop the administration from sabotaging the private insurance market,” she said during an interview on CNN’s “New Day.”

“When I talk to the folks in Michigan they say, just stabilize things by keeping the commitments made when health reform was passed.”

{mosads}Stabenow said there were certain payments “that were agreed to to help keep costs down” and to help insurance companies “make sure they could cover pre-existing conditions without costs going up.”

“One of those payments has gone away completely. The other one, the White House says they’re not sure they’re going to make,” she said.

“We have an insurance industry not sure how to do the ratings because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” she continued.

“They also cut in half the amount of time that people have to sign up for the private insurance exchanges. They’re not trying to get younger, healthier people in anymore.”

Stabenow added that she has a bill that would give a 50 percent tax credit to small businesses for providing health insurance.

“Let’s help small businesses be able to afford insurance,” she said.

Stabenow also said she had reached out to her GOP colleagues regarding the healthcare plan.

“I think there are people of good will that want to come together to solve the real problems,” she said. 

Senate Republicans last week unveiled a draft of their plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

On Monday, several Senate Republicans said they would not back a procedural motion on the legislation after a Congressional Budget Office report found the bill would leave 22 million more people without insurance over the next decade.