Now that the GOP health care replacement effort has failed, the blame game has begun.
The National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project says the failure of the U.S. Senate to reach a consensus on the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Actis the fault of the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
The conservative shareholder activist organization contends those industries worked to promote and craft the 2010 law “to benefit their bottom lines,” but now that the ACA exchanges are struggling, the businesses “can't be bothered to promote policies that would benefit the American people.”
“Obamacare was written to benefit large insurers and pharmaceutical companies, but it placed undue burdens on the American people and regional markets,” writes National Center General Counsel and FEP Director, Justin Danhof. “When many markets were no longer profitable, insurers left those Obamacare exchanges altogether to not burden their bottom lines. While some may view this as smart business, it ignores the fact that these same companies were involved in the creation of the law and were warned by conservatives about issues such as the coverage death spiral.”
Danhof says that companies like Cigna, Aetna and Johnson & Johnson have “a moral responsibility” to help craft better health care reform because they have been the beneficiaries of “massive taxpayer-funded provisions,” such as the risk corridors, under the ACA.
Instead, the health insurance industry's primary trade association, the America's Health Insurance Plans, last Friday came out strongly against an amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that would have allowed Americans to buy health insurance plans that fit their needs and “not the artificial list of coverages,” deemed essential benefits under the ACA, Danhof said.
“Obamacare was not an easy sell, but the likes of Obama, Pelosi and Jarrett counted on money and influence from top pharmaceutical companies, health insurers and even pharmaceutical retail chains to bring the message of Obamacare to the public,” Danhof says. “The Senate will surely revive its effort to repeal and replace Obamacare with an affordable, sustainable system. When they do, corporate leaders need to step up and do their part to fix the mess that they helped create.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Tuesday put the blame squarely on politicians — even those in his party.
“We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans,” Trump tweeted hours after Republican Sens. Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Mike Lee (Utah) announced they would not support taking up a bill repealing and replacing the ACA, effectively blocking the legislation, according to The Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said late Monday that the Senate would now try to separate the repeal and replace of the ACA.
"In the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period," McConnell said in a statement.
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Katie Kuehner-Hebert
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a freelance writer based in Running Springs, Calif. She has more than three decades of journalism experience, with particular expertise in employee benefits and other human resource topics.
