Love this:
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has introduced legislation that would allow Americans who live in counties without insurance choices under Obamacare to sign up for coverage through the same Washington, D-C.-based exchanges used by members of Congress and their staffs.
McCaskill told reporters it was a bipartisan attempt to fix the Affordable Care Act, but not replace it. She said she hoped Republicans signed onto the legislation, and she blamed the Trump administration for trying to undermine the current law to make a case to repeal and replace it.
Republicans, including her counterpart, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., have said the ACA – known as “Obamacare” – is failing. Blunt cites the fact that a majority of Missouri’s counties – most of them in rural areas of the state – are down to one insurance provider in the exchange markets as evidence of a need to replace it with something else. Republicans have also pointed to entire states, like Iowa, being on the verge of having no companies offering insurance in the exchanges.
So far, no counties in Missouri are in that predicament. But McCaskill said that the Trump administration, by talking down the law and threatening to withhold funds designed to help stabilize exchange markets under Obamacare, is responsible for its bad condition. Her bill is preventative in case some counties are shut out of the exchange market altogether by the withdrawal of private insurers, she said.
Here’s a little more info:
McCaskill’s bill would allow people in these counties to purchase insurance through the District of Columbia’s exchange, which is where many members of Congress and their staffs get their insurance. The D.C. exchange has national plans, so a person working in a congressman’s district office in Alabama, for example, can get insurance in that state, she said.
McCaskill, who called the bill a preventive measure, said she was hopeful that she could find bipartisan support for the idea.
“The biggest problem we’re going to have here is whether there’s an acknowledgment that we need to repair whether than repeal,” she said.
It won’t pass but it’s a very smart move on McCaskill’s end and she’s playing it a good angle. If Congress can have great quality health care, why can’t those who don’t have the same option? Plus, it sounds like McCaskill is anticipating going up against this idiot:
U.S. Representative Ann Wagner (R-St. Louis County), a shrieking harpy who would happily feast on any one of her constituents if her corporate paymasters gave her a couple hundred bucks to do so, made a rare public appearance today.
Not before her constituents, of course. She's steadfastly refused to do that, because those people vote for her for free, and Ann Wagner doesn't respect anybody who does something without getting paid.
Instead it was before the second great love of her life, a camera. Positively giddy with anticipation at ripping healthcare away from millions of American citizens, she preened and cooed while relaying the substance of today's meetings in the House in the run up to the vote.
Let make Republicans like Wagner pay big time for their health care votes. Click here to donate and get involved with McCaskill’s re-election campaign.