The Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, says the GOP is still in the mood to kill the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, but it all depends on who controls Congress after the election. From Reuters:
“Despite their dominance of Congress and the White House, Republicans dramatically failed last year to overturn former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare. McConnell called it “the one disappointment of this Congress from a Republican point of view.”
“He said, “If we had the votes to completely start over, we’d do it. But that depends on what happens in a couple weeks… We’re not satisfied with the way Obamacare is working.”
It took Democrats only moments to pounce.
It's official: Republicans will try to repeal the Affordable Care Act (again) if they win enough seats in November. We can't sit this election out. Health care is on the line. https://t.co/mpYU0zJsg6
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 17, 2018
Didn’t expect so many Democratic messaging gifts to come from Cocaine Mitch in the homestretch, but we’ll take it. https://t.co/qWp2KIXfFx
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) October 17, 2018
It seems odd that the leader of the GOP in Congress would choose now, less than three weeks before the midterm election, to mention ACA repeal, especially given the plans popularity. A poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found:
“75% of Americans want to keep the ACA’s provisions that prevent health plans from “denying coverage based on a person’s medical history” and 72% want to retain the provision that prevents insurers from “charging sick people more.”
Republican strategist Karl Rove wrote in the Wall St. Journal that healthcare is the “sleeper issue of 2018.” Thanks to Senator McConnell, maybe not anymore.
