Latta: Republicans can’t afford to wait on repeal

March 11--U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green) said in an interview with The Blade on Friday he supports the partial Affordable Care Act repeal bill backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Trump.

"We gotta get this thing started," Mr. Latta said. "What the Democrats would love to do is run the clock out on this. The window of opportunity is only several months in the first part of the year. It's not next year. It's this year. We've got to get this moving, because -- if we don't -- the Democrats will run the clock out on us."

As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Latta joined a party-line vote to approve the bill Thursday, following a 27-hour committee meeting, during which 18 amendments were considered.

Also supporting the bill was the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Latta said the Ryan bill is the GOP's best chance of rolling back the health-care law known as Obamacare despite complaints from more conservative Republicans that the bill leaves too much of it intact.

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Urbana), a founding member and former chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, has introduced his own bill that outright repeals Obamacare -- just as Republicans did dozens of times when Barack Obama was president, only to see their repeals die in the Senate or vetoed.

"We want to make this bill consistent with what we told the voters we were going to do. Why don't we do what we all voted on? A clean repeal. The exact same legislation we put on President Obama's desk why don't we put on President Trump's desk?" Mr. Jordan asked in an interview Thursday with CNN.

He said the Ryan bill keeps "way too much of the structure of Obamacare."

Mr. Latta said the bill was drafted so it can be passed as part of the budget reconciliation act, which means that any changes can be made with 51 votes. Republicans have 52 votes in the Senate -- far short of the 60 votes needed to enact new policy legislation.

Getting all 52 Republicans on board isn't guaranteed, either.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) and three other Republican senators have objected to abolishing the Medicaid expansion, which allowed some 700,000 Ohioans to afford health-care premiums.

"Once it gets over in the Senate it can be passed with 51 votes. You don't have to have a cloture vote of 60," Mr. Latta said. "It would never get out of there because you can never get 60 votes. Otherwise it's a futile process that we're in."

The bill ends the individual mandate requiring Americans to have health insurance.

In its place, citizens will be offered tax credits to help them buy medical coverage from the private insurance market.

It creates a refundable tax credit for health care premiums. "Refundable" means that even citizens who don't have enough income to pay taxes can get a check for the tax credit amount.

Mr. Latta said the bill will have bipartisan support, such as from some union workers because it eliminates the "Cadillac tax" -- the tax placed on high-cost health insurance options that some unions have negotiated.

"We want to make sure that people can get insurance," Mr. Latta said.

He said Obamacare is collapsing and that insurance companies are rapidly pulling out of the exchanges that were set up to sell the subsidized Obamacare health insurance plans.

Mr. Latta said Medicaid is not a good fit for health insurance. "Medicaid is not really for this purpose," he said.

"We want this to be a patient-centered system," Mr. Latta said.

Mr. Latta's position on the Affordable Care Act has been a matter of concern for constituents and progressive activists who staged "town hall" meetings in his district during a weeklong recess in February, unsuccessfully urging his attendance.

Asked why he didn't meet in those town-hall settings, Mr. Latta said he has a long-standing practice of meeting with constituents one-on-one in local county courthouses.

"I do constituent one-on-ones. I've had 51 in the last four years," Mr. Latta said.

U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) condemned the bill being advanced without transparency or meaningful input from the American people.

"This proposal rewards the rich and health-care executives while denying care to hardworking Americans," Miss Kaptur said. "The Republican plan does nothing to control the cost of medicine and imposes far higher premium rates on people who live paycheck to paycheck. We must build on the progress of the Affordable Care Act, and not turn back to a time many Americans went without care."

She said 866,000 Ohioans have gained coverage since the Affordable Care Act took effect.

Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.

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