Grassley expects GOP health care plan will require tweaking

June 29--Sen. Chuck Grassley expects to hear a lot about Republicans' plans to reform health care when he continues his annual 99-county tour of Iowa during the Fourth of July congressional district work recess next week.

Based on what he's hearing, he said, he doubts everyone who attends his county meetings will be happy with the proposed changes.

"You have to take questions -- unfriendly questions -- and listen to people who disagree with you," the Iowa Republican said Wednesday. "That the whole purpose of Q-and-As."

Neither Grassley nor Sen. Joni Ernst have yet released a schedule of meetings that voters might be able to attend over the break to discuss issues with them.

Grassley declined to say how he would have voted on the Senate health care plan if it had come to a vote this week as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had planned.

"This bill is changing by the hour," Grassley said. "It would be very stupid of me to say how I would vote. If I'm going to give you judgment I'm going to give you judgment on what I know is the final product."

But doing nothing is not an option, Grassley told reporters on his weekly conference call. Although many who have contacted him tell him not to make any changes in the Affordable Care Act, he said he has also heard from thousands of Iowans who say Obamacare has failed them.

The Senate plan, he believes, would stabilize the insurance markets and attract more insurance companies to compete, perhaps attracting some who left the Iowa market to return.

The promise of Obamacare was that everyone would have health insurance, but 31 million Americans remain without coverage, Grassley said. The Congressional Budget Office said Obamacare would cost $840 billion, but by 2015 the 10-year cost projection had been raised to $2 trillion.

"A lot of people cite to me what the CBO says about the Senate bill. Well, the CBO isn't always right," he said.

Like Democrats in 2009 who had intentions in putting together "what they thought was the best plan to accomplish the goals of reforming the health care system," Grassley said Republicans will say a lot of positive things about the results they expect from their health care reform.

"They may not turn out that way, so that's why you phase it in and don't make a lot of changes until 2021 and phase those changes in over the next four years," he said. "There's about eight or nine years for Congress to intervene if our positive thoughts don't turn out."

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com

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