Sen. Young still committed to replacing Obamacare

Oct. 14--U.S. Sen. Todd Young reaffirmed his commitment Friday to finding a replacement for the Affordable Care Act as President Donald Trump forces Congress's hand through executive order.

Earlier this week, Trump signed an executive order allowing healthier enrollees to switch to plans offered by trade associations. He followed that up announcing the federal government would halt payments for cost-sharing reductions, payments that allow millions of low-income Americans afford coverage. The subsidies total about $7 billion this year.

"As a constitutional matter, it's clearly the job of the legislative branch to appropriate funds," the Indiana Republican senator said of Trump's executive order halting payments to insurers. "I think that the president, constitutionally, is correct here. I'm duty-bound to support the Constitution, so I am supportive of the executive branch following the Constitution."

Trump's executive orders come just weeks after a third failed bid by Congress to repeal and replace the ACA, and just two and a half weeks before the Marketplace is set to open again Nov. 1. Young voted in favor of the two earliest attempts. A vote on the Graham-Cassidy Bill was scrapped after it was apparent it would not pass.

Young, who sat down with Herald-Times reporters Friday morning to discuss a range of topics, said he remains committed to finding a replacement for the ACA that benefits all Hoosiers.

"It's really important that Hoosiers continue to have access to affordable health care. Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act is neither affordable nor accessible for lots of Hoosiers, nor sustainable," Young said, adding that two-thirds of Indiana counties have a single insurer option on the Marketplace. "That's the definition of no competition."

Democratic colleagues of Young's, including former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, have called for a single-payer health care system, acknowledging flaws within the ACA. Young said he believes there's a better, more American option out there.

"This is not what Hoosiers want. Single-payer plans around the world do seem to provide care at a lower cost, but what often is lost in that sort of bumper-sticker characterization of these single-payer systems is there's some form of rationing," Young said. "Whether it's through longer waiting times or through a more limited availability of certain life-saving or life-improving drugs or medical devices. So, rationing is not the American way. It's not consistent with the culture of most of this country."

As a member of the Senate's Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, Young said he is committed to working across the aisle to find a solution. He added that he had previously reached out to every Democrat in the Senate to solicit ideas and begin a dialogue.

"If Congress fails to act, we know that health care will continue to be inaccessible, overly costly and unsustainable for Hoosiers as it under the ACA," he said.

"I think we need to actually remove our ideological blinders and have an honest, fact-based conversation. Before we can do that, we have to agree on same base-level facts. You can't have respectful debates if you can't agree on some base-level facts, so that's always a challenge in Washington."

Young admitted that health care is an especially tough issue to find common ground on because it doesn't lend itself well to incremental wins, or trade-offs.

"Health care is more about major systems, so it's harder," he said, adding that members of Congress need to stop questioning others' motivations in a mean-spirited fashion. "For those of us who are critical of the (ACA), which most Americans know as Obamacare, we need to watch our tone and our word choice so that we create the space for people to embrace broader reforms."

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