WASHINGTON -According to the AP — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is laying out her strategy on health care and first up is improvements to “Obamacare” and legislation to lower prescription drug costs. “Medicare for all” will get hearings.
Pelosi and President Donald Trump have been sounding similar themes about the need to address the high drug costs. But her plans to broaden financial help for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act are unlikely to find takers among Republicans.
Either way, Democrats believe voters gave them a mandate on health care in the midterm elections that returned the House to their control.
Pushing her agenda, Pelosi is working from the ground up through major House committees. Her relationships with powerful chairmen and subcommittee chairs stretch back years. She’s “playing chess on three boards at once,” said Jim McDermott, a former Democratic congressman from Washington state, who predicts Pelosi’s most difficult challenge will be “herding new members” impatient for sweeping changes.
Responding to written questions from The Associated Press, Pelosi called the ACA “a pillar of health and financial security,” comparing it to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. “Democrats have the opportunity not only to reverse the years of Republicans’ health care sabotage, but to update and improve the Affordable Care Act to further lower families’ premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and expand coverage.”
Legislation from Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Workforce and Education Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., would broaden the number of people who can get financial assistance with their premiums under the Obama health law, and undo the “family glitch” that prevents some from qualifying for subsidies. It would also restore the HealthCare.gov advertising budget slashed by Trump and block some of his administration’s health insurance alternatives.
Those issues are separate from legal questions raised by ongoing Republican litigation to overturn the health law. As one if its first acts, the Democratic-led House voted to intervene in the court case to defend the law.
The ACA package has little chance as a stand-alone bill. But parts of it could become bargaining chips when Congress considers major budget legislation.
