U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley is using President Trump’s speech to Congress to build support for the Affordable Care Act, pointing out that five weeks into office, no plan has appeared to replace Obamacare that would not end health coverage for millions of people.
“I think the issue that many Americans will pay attention to is repealing healthcare,” he told reporters on Tuesday morning by telephone from Washington, D.C.
“Republicans are definitely not ignoring the American people,” he said. “People are speaking up. … People have heard from their constituents: We have to be careful what we do.”
As his guest of honor, Merkley invited Portland resident Marlene Barbera, who credits her life to the Affordable Care Act after both she and her son qualified for the Oregon Health Plan, or Medicaid. Each needed a liver transplant after their lives were imperiled by late-stage Hepatitis C, a disease she unknowingly had acquired 30 years ago while working at a blood plasma clinic.
Under the old system, low-income children could receive Medicaid, but Barbera would have been subject to a lottery to enroll, with no guarantee she’d survive the waiting period. She said her illness had left her too ill to continue at her job, leaving her without stable income and reliant on the Oregon Health Plan.
“I am terrified of what would happen to us and for those around the country if the Republicans’ ‘Repeal and Run’ plan succeeds,” said Barbera. “Repealing this law is going to hurt people.”
“If President Trump wants to weigh out his vision of dismantling healthcare for the middle class, he needs to look citizens like Marlene in the eye,” Merkley said.
Oregon's senior congressman, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, also used the speech to call attention to Obamacare, leaving the seat next to him vacant "to represent a constituent who will die or go bankrupt without the Affordable Care Act."
Merkley sidestepped a question over whether there could be any common ground with Republicans on repairing the Affordable Care Act, which, despite its successes, has led to spiraling cost increases in the individual health market. The risk pool has been sicker than health insurers anticipated, possibly because the subsidies were too limited and the tax penalties have been too soft to compel younger, healthier people to buy plans.
Instead, the senator focused on the popular attributes of the program that he said would be very hard for Republicans to take away from their constituents, including requirements that insurers cover those with pre-existing conditions and prohibitions on annual or lifetime caps on treatment. “These things are all extremely popular,” Merkley said.
Merkley noted the benefit Obamacare had provided to shore up rural hospitals and the lopsided number of rural Oregonians who have qualified for health assistance, particularly in Eastern Oregon, which is served by the state’s sole Republican congressman, Rep. Greg Walden. Merkley said he had not spoken with Walden to hear how his colleague might protect the healthcare gains made by Oregon’s unique coordinated care model for Medicaid.
Merkley did say that maintaining funding for Medicaid was his biggest concern with Republican plans to upend Obamacare.
He also expressed worry that the Republicans may try to cut Medicare and convert it to a voucher system, much like the Affordable Care Act for adults under 65. Trump recently repeated a campaign promise not to agree to this long-held goal of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and the new Health & Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, a former Republican congressman from Georgia. “I’m very concerned about this strategy to voucherize Medicare,” Merkley said. “I think in the end they will have a difficult time with such an effort.”
Chris Gray can be reached at [email protected].
