Faso helps GOP health-care plan clear committee

March 17--Rep. John Faso helped the Republicans' plan to replace the Affordable Care Act clear a congressional committee by a single vote on Thursday, as three other Republicans on the House Budget Committee joined all of the panel's Democrats in opposition to the bill.

The Kinderhook Republican, who took office in January and whose district includes Ulster and Sullivan counties, had taken no position on the Republicans' American Health Care Act prior to the vote. He wound up siding with his party in a 19-17 vote, at the outset of a charged session in which Republicans and Democrats traded barbs about the proposal and the impact of the 2010 health-care law Republicans yearn to eradicate.

Faso weighed in at one point by defending the Republicans' plan to let states increase how much more insurers can charge older customers for premiums than younger ones, raising the 3-to-1 ratio to 5-to-1. He argued that step was needed because too few young people -- customers with lower medical costs -- had enrolled in insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and insurance companies had quit participating in the federal program as a result.

"Frankly, we need to do this, because that's how we lower premiums for the vast majority of American people who right now are seeing extraordinary increases in their deductibles, extraordinary increases in their premiums and unaffordable health insurance," Faso said. "What good is insurance if you can't afford it?"

He later issued a statement describing the Budget Committee's vote as a "procedural step" that merely affirmed that the bill complied with a budget resolution that the House passed in January. He said he will continue to review the legislation and talk to constituents, medical providers and insurers about how it would affect them as the bill moves to a fourth committee and then the House floor for a vote.

"I will remain focused on keeping what works in the original Affordable Care Act while offering improvements to fix what has failed too many of our fellow Americans," Faso said in the statement. "Given these circumstances, simply doing nothing is neither practical nor responsible."

All three Republicans who voted against the bill on Thursday belong to the conservative Freedom Caucus, whose members have criticized the proposal for not going far enough in dismantling the Affordable Care Act's policies.

Democrats were quick to pounce on Faso for his vote. "Representative Faso is now on the record in favor of a health care bill that imposes an unfair age tax on older Americans, jacks up health insurance premiums, and rips away coverage from millions so that Faso can cut taxes for health insurance CEOs," Evan Lukaske, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement on Thursday. "Not only did Faso cast the deciding vote for this boardroom bailout, but he broke his promise to New York women by voting to defund Planned Parenthood. Faso now owns this debacle until Election Day."

Faso had urged his fellow Republicans during a private meeting in January -- a recording of which was leaked to the media -- not to use the health-care bill as a vehicle to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood, a contentious issue that he felt could derail the legislation. The House bill wound up including a provision to defund Planned Parenthood for a year. On Thursday, he voted in support of a motion to remove that provision.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Cold Spring Democrat who represents Orange County in the neighboring 18th Congressional District, isn't on any of the three committees that have voted so far on the Republican bill, but has spoken strongly in opposition to it. He issued a blunt statement on Monday after the release of a report projecting that 24 million fewer Americans would have health insurance by 2026 if the bill is enacted.

"Listen, I wasn't in Congress when Obamacare passed, and I've always said we need to get to work fixing it, but this thing is so terrible it frankly isn't worthy of being called a health care bill," Maloney said. "Ripping insurance away from 24 million people, defunding Planned Parenthood, gutting Medicare and Medicaid, and sticking older Americans with skyrocketing bills just to give another tax cut to the rich is just dumb as a box of rocks."

cmckenna@th-record.com

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