House Dems call for a vote on ObamaCare stabilization bill

Three top Democratic House committee members called on Friday for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to allow a vote on legislation intended to strengthen ObamaCare and stabilize the insurance markets.

In a letter sent Friday, Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Education and the Workforce Committee ranking member Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said Ryan should allow a vote on a bill they said would make coverage more affordable.

The letter was sent on the first anniversary of the House passage of the ObamaCare repeal bill, the American Health Care Act. The Congressional Budget Office said the bill would have resulted in 23 million people losing health insurance, and cut Medicaid spending by $834 billion.

Ultimately, the ObamaCare repeal effort failed last summer when the Senate was unable to pass its own version of the legislation.

“May the 4th marked a low point in our nation’s decades-long history of improving Americans’ access to health care,” the Democrats wrote. “In fact, since President Trump took office, his administration and a Republican Congress have unwaveringly pursued their goal of tearing down our health care system.”

In their letter, Neal, Pallone and Scott pointed to a poll from the Commonwealth Fund this week that found an estimated 4 million people have lost coverage since 2016, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s comments that premiums will rise as result of the Republican tax law’s repeal of the individual mandate.

Price later said his remarks were taken out of context, and he continues to believe that repealing the mandate was a good idea.

“This is not what we want for our constituents and the millions of Americans who benefit from having access to quality health insurance,” the Democrats wrote.  “We believe we should be working across the aisle to strengthen health insurance and consumer affordability and access.”