Unsurprising: 4 Republicans Vote To Extend Ocare Subsidies In Senate

The squishes keep squishing

4 GOP senators break ranks to vote for Democratic extension of ObamaCare subsidies

Four Republican senators, including two vulnerable incumbents who are up for reelection next year, broke ranks Thursday and voted for a three-year extension of enhanced health insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) all voted for the Democratic proposal, which was introduced by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.).

They joined all forty-seven Democrats in voting to advance the measure, which failed to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to move forward. The motion to proceed to the measure failed 51 to 47. The vast majority of Republican senators voted against the measure.

No one should be surprised by Collins and Murkowski, they always do this. Hawley and Sullivan are disappointing.

Collins on Monday introduced a bill with Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) to extend the enhanced health insurance premium subsidies under the ACA for two years while limiting their availability to households earning less than $200,000 a year. They also proposed requiring lower-income Americans who participate on the ObamaCare marketplace to pay at least $25 monthly premiums.

$200K? Really? That’s insane. How about a year extension with a requirement for utter and complete reform. Ocare is not going away. The time to kill it was before it went into effect. It’s time it was completely overhauled. It started with absurd deductibles that made it almost unusable, then the premiums kept going up at least 10% ever year. The COVID era subsidies merely hid several years of big rises. Democrats do not want reform, because, while the original intention was to put health insurers out of business, it quickly morphed into Democrats making sure those same hated insurance companies got lots of taxpayer money, which then gets funneled back to Democrat election coffers.

Blame Republicans for our health insurance mess

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A recent survey found that 76 percent of people who get their insurance through the ACA and want the subsidies extended would blame President Donald Trump or Republicans in Congress if they are not. The broader public, the vast majority of whom would also like to see the aid extended, agrees; 48 percent of voters blame the GOP, while 32 percent pin it on the Democrats, per a new Morning Consult poll.

And, because Republicans are bad at messaging and too many are squishy, and the vast majority of the media are Democrats, they get this result.

This is wholly a problem created by Democrats, but, elected Republicans and the GOPe are idiots.