Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has joined Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in making cutting bad deals in exchange for her vote on the Republican bill to give massive tax cuts to the rich and take away health care (and tax cuts) from everybody else. She says "I believe I have secured an agreement" for the Senate to take up the Alexander-Murray Obamacare stabilization bill in return for her vote on these tax cuts.
She's been holding out for this as the remedy for the harm that the proposed repeal of the individual mandate caused. In addition to a vote on Alexander-Murray, she wants a vote on a bill she's written with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) to set aside $4.5 billion for the next two years to help fund states' reinsurance programs, which would compensate insurance carriers for their most expensive customers.
There's a couple of big problems here. One is that $4.5 billion over two years is not nearly enough. Ask an expert, like Tim Jost, a Washington and Lee law health law professor emeritus, who says "$2.25 billion a year, allocated only to states that get … waivers to establish invisible high risk pools or reinsurance programs, would only be a drop in the bucket." Brookings expert Matt Fiedler adds that reinsurance can't possibly offset the damage done from mandate repeal because "keeping premiums from rising would not meaningfully address the reductions in insurance coverage from mandate repeal. And reducing insurance coverage is how the individual mandate does its real damage."
That's just on the reinsurance side. There are myriad issues with Alexander-Murray—which as a stand-alone bill is necessary—as a trade-off for repeal. We've been through this before, when Murkowski was making the same demand. Alexander-Murry could in no way offset the loss to insurance companies are getting from mandate repeal. The result will be massive premium spikes, more uncertainty and confusion for insurers, and more insurers leaving the markets. Not to mention that Alexander-Murray isn't guaranteed to pass. It's going to require 60 votes and Democrats have already said they're not playing.
The fix Collins has agreed to is no fix, not by a long shot. It's a political fig leaf, cover for her willingness to cut loose thousands of her constituents. She's using the same argument Murkowski has used, that repealing the individual mandate isn't taking away insurance, it's giving people choice. Collins repeated that lie Tuesday, saying "I do recognize there is a big difference between allowing people to choose going without insurance versus what we were faced with last summer and fall where insurance was going to be taken away involuntarily from people."
Bullshit, Senator. Because there will be millions of people—13 million according to the CBO—forced out of the markets when premiums start rising or insurance companies bail on the individual markets. Maine, Collins is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Don't let her.
Jam your senators' phone lines at (202) 224-3121. Tell them to vote "no" on the Republican tax bill.