Democrats in Congress have pulled a page from the Republican playbook, spending months doing the easy lift: criticize, criticize, criticize the Republican health care plan.
But the time has come to put the rubber to the road. Democrats must come together to publicly offer viable alternatives to the American Health Care Plan, a.k.a. Trumpcare. Build your half of the bridge to “real” negotiations and let the Republicans either publicly walk away or face their constituents.
Not only is it an act of leadership but it is the beginning of a road map to true health care reform. And the on-ramp is here.
Republican leaders from Gov. Chris Sununu to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and others, have voiced opposition, and rightfully so, to the current Senate version of the health care plan. This opposition has stalled a bad bill and provides an opportunity for people of both parties to get together to work up a plan that can help people. Remember: Like doctors, both sides should commit to “do no harm.”
Obamacare in its current form has serious problems. Premiums for anyone over 45 are outrageously high and coverage is very thin with high deductibles.
Democrats have not made any substantive proposals to fix the current ACA (changes they can argue for and explain to the American people). The time is now to do it.
1. Repeal the prohibition that prevents Medicare from negotiating drug prices. The VA does negotiate drug prices and pays about one-third of the price for the same drug that Medicare pays. Start there. Someone put that forward as a part of the plan. We could see $60 billion in savings annually.
2. Eliminate the mandate that people have to buy insurance. Replace it with an incentive plan modeled after Medicare D. The earlier you buy insurance, the cheaper it is.
3. Offer folks 50 and over the opportunity to buy into Medicare. After all, it is already the most efficient and cost-effective health insurance and with the ability to negotiate drug prices (see 1 above), we enhance its efficiency.
Talk to governors like Chris Sununu and others across the country to get their ideas on what needs to be done. Expect delays and detours while the health care highway is repaved. Not closed down, but repaved.
Yes, the road crew has differing opinions about many things that make the work challenging, but the one thing that unifies us is our need for health care.
Let’s work together on posting signs that illuminate the on ramps and encourage merging rather than closing lanes and restricting access.
Begin with the end in mind: affordable accessible health care for every American.
It’s time to come up with a plan. People’s lives depend on it.
(Arnie Arnesen of Concord and Rick Newman of Nottingham are both Democrats.)