Portman’s opposition helps kill ‘repeal only’ plan

WASHINGTON — After more than 60 House votes during the Barack Obama presidency, one Senate vote in 2015, a 2013 government shutdown and two GOP presidential campaigns premised on the promise of repealing Obamacare, the 2010 law lives on, with no apparent end in sight.

After Republican support collapsed for the latest version of the Senate Republican plan Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday he would schedule a floor vote to merely scrap the Affordable Care Act without trying to pass a replacement.

But the Kentucky Republican soon lost the necessary GOP support for a “repeal only” vote, with four Republicans including Ohio’s Rob Portman quickly lining up against the plan.

“I would not support just having a repeal vote if that’s all he’s going to offer,” Portman told reporters on a conference call. “We need to have a replacement as well.”

He insisted he is not “giving up on repeal and replace,” saying Obamacare “has not been good for Ohio. Premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed” in the individual marketplaces where middle-income people can buy federally subsidized insurance plans.

A growing number of lawmakers appeared baffled at McConnell’s strategy, with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, saying, “I don’t have any idea what happens next.”

Tuesday night, McConnell indicated a procedural vote may come early next week on whether a “repeal-only” bill can be considered.

President Donald Trump — who is scheduled to hold a rally in Youngstown next Tuesday — expressed exasperation.

“For seven years, I’ve been hearing ‘repeal and replace’ from Congress, and I’ve been hearing it loud and strong,” he said. “And then when we finally get a chance to repeal and replace, they don’t take advantage of it. So that’s disappointing.”

Trump said his plan is now “to let Obamacare fail, it will be a lot easier. And I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll just let Obamacare fail. We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us and say how do we fix it.”

Brown said repealing the bill with no replacement would cause uncertainty among insurance companies and drive up costs for consumers.

“Of all of McConnell’s ideas on health care, this wins the award of dumbest idea of all,” he said.

McConnell’s plan was this: “It’s pretty clear that there are not 50 Republicans at the moment to vote for a replacement for Obamacare. Consequently, sometime in the near future we’ll have a vote on repealing Obamacare, essentially the same vote that we had in 2015.”

That Obamacare repeal passed the House and Senate — Ohioans voted along party lines — but was vetoed by Obama.

But Portman and others who backed a “repeal only” approach two years ago abandoned McConnell this time around.

A January 2017 Congressional Budget Office report showed that the number of those uninsured under the 2015 proposal would increase by 18 million in the first year after repeal, rising to 32 million by 2026. That report also found that premiums in the individual market would increase by as much as 25 percent in the first year, but skyrocket to 50 percent after Medicaid expansion and the marketplace subsidies were eliminated.

Some lawmakers, however, still back a straight repeal of the 2010 law, saying a replacement can come later.

Speaking on CNN, Rep. Jim Jordan endorsed eliminating Obamacare with a two-year phase-out period that would allow Congress to craft a replacement.

“If it was good enough last Congress, why isn’t it good enough this Congress when it really counts?” the Urbana Republican asked. “Let’s call up the vote and see what happens. I actually think there’s a good chance it passes.”

Brown repeated that he is willing to work with a bipartisan group including Sens. Portman, Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., to work out a new deal.

Brown said all big laws — Medicare, labor law — needed revisiting after three or four years to “fix the unintended consequences.”

“We have always done that,” he said, adding “McConnell won’t let us do that.”

Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and 10 other governors from both parties Tuesday urged a bipartisan approach, declaring “the best next step is for both parties to come together and do what we can all agree on: Fix our unstable insurance markets.” 

The signers of the letter included five Republicans, an independent, and five Democrats — including former national party chairman Terry McAuliffe, now governor of Virginia.

Kasich told CNN the focus now should be on stabilizing the exchanges and “once that’s done, thinking about the broader aspects of health care” as well as tackling entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security.

“All of these things can be reformed, but it really should be done on a bipartisan basis,” he said.

CREDIT: JACK TORRY ; JESSICA WEHRMAN GATEHOUSE OHIO MEDIA