Rep. Scott DesJarlais may vote no on Obamacare replacement bill

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

March 14--WASHINGTON -- GOP Rep. Scott DesJarlais expressed serious reservations Tuesday about the House Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act and said he's leaning toward voting against the legislation.

Asked in an interview with the USA Today Network-Tennessee if he would vote for the GOP plan, DesJarlais said, "No, not as it's written.''

A few minutes later, he offered a more nuanced response. "I won't say I'm a no, but I'm certainly leaning no and would have a hard time voting for it in its current form," the South Pittsburg Republican said.

DesJarlais' remarks are noteworthy because he is the first Republican in the Tennessee congressional delegation to openly express doubts about the GOP plan and because he was elected to Congress six years ago in large part on a promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

DesJarlais made his reservations about the legislation public ahead of President Trump's scheduled trip to Nashville, where he is expected to make his pitch for the Republican proposal during a campaign-style rally on Wednesday.

DesJarlais, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said that while the GOP plan would be an improvement over the current law, it would not provide quick enough relief for working-class Americans who have seen their insurance premiums increase as a result of the reforms put in place under former President Barack Obama.

The congressman said his concerns were underscored by a cost analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which concluded that average premiums would be 15 to 20 percent higher in 2018 and 2019 under the GOP plan than they would under the current law.

Premiums would start to drop after 2019 and should be around 10 percent lower by around 2026, the budget analysis said. But DesJarlais said Americans hit by high premiums expect relief sooner.

"I don't see where this offers much relief in the near future," he said.

DesJarlais said he also would like to begin winding down the Medicaid expansion in 2018, two years sooner than it's scheduled to happen under the GOP plan.

DesJarlais said he's also concerned that, under about the GOP's three-stage plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare, consumer-friendly bills to allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines and permit the government to use its purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices would not go before Congress until the final stage.

Such legislation would require at least 60 votes in the Senate, a threshold that could be difficult to meet since Republicans only hold 52 seats in the Senate, DesJarlais said.

DesJarlais said negotiations on the bill are still under way and that his concerns may be addressed before the package is put to a vote. But right now, "it doesn't seem like we're that close to passing it in the House," he said.

"It's so important we get this right," DesJarlais said. "Replacing bad legislation with legislation that doesn't solve the problem doesn't get us anywhere."

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