Congressional Republicans appear poised to take another shot at repealing and replacing ObamaCare — this, during a critical, election year in which Democrats are blaming the GOP for escalating health insurance costs.
A coalition of conservative groups have for months purportedly been working behind the scenes to draft a measure that would pass in Congress, and more specifically one that would garner some bipartisan support and get through the Senate, where the repeal-replace effort led by President Trump and practically every elected Republican in Washington failed in July 2017.
Several people familiar with the new effort said this week that they have senators ready to sponsor the legislation and expressed confidence that their state-based plan will pass where others have failed.
Democrats, in their effort to take control of the House and in a longshot bid to win the Senate, have indeed argued that Republicans’ piecemeal dismantling of the ObamaCare — the Obama-era law more formally known as the 2010 Affordable Care Act — has resulted in escalating premium costs.
“The efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act are leading to increases in premiums … so Americans are being squeezed with rising health care costs,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Wednesday to reporters in Washington.
