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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'll be perfectly willing to work with Democrats to fix a glitch in the Affordable Care Act to stabilize the insurance markets. With conditions:
McConnell told reporters Saturday there is “still a chance” the Senate could revive the measure to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but he acknowledged the window for that is rapidly closing.
The Kentucky senator noted Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is working on "some kind of bipartisan approach" that would involve subsidies for insurance companies. […]
"If the Democrats are willing to support some real reforms rather than just an insurance company bailout, I would be willing to take a look at it," McConnell said, hours before he was expected to speak at the famously raucous Fancy Farm picnic in western Kentucky.
Number one, it's not a bailout. The law requires that insurance companies provide subsidized rates to certain customers so they can afford the out-of-pocket expenses in their plans. It's an agreement with the government, in the law, that the insurance companies accepted in good faith. In the absence of good faith from a Republican government, insurance companies have to swallow the cost of providing that subsidized coverage, and make it up by raising premiums which hurts everyone.
Number two, those "real reforms" he's talking about is getting "Democrats to agree to make it easier for states to choose their own health coverage standards that insurers must provide rather than abiding by former President Barack Obama’s law." Meaning, basically the protections that everyone across the country gets in their health insurance policies would end for people in red states.
That fundamentally degrades the promise of Obamacare, which is exactly what Republicans have in mind. If they can't destroy the law, they'll try to undermine the aspects of it that make it most successful and most popular. This is a "deal" Democrats need to flat-out refuse.