A pro-Obamacare nonprofit released a road map Monday for the next steps beyond the president’s health law, including getting every state to sign up for expanded Medicaid and pushing for universal dental coverage.
The move served as a signal that President Obama’s allies don’t just want to play defense against GOP efforts to undercut Obamacare, but want to see it expanded into new areas.
“With the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, every legal resident gained the right to health coverage — a historic achievement,” said the report by Families USA, titled “Health Reform 2.0.” “However, enacting this unprecedented legal right is not the same as making it a living reality. We must take additional steps to ensure that health coverage and care become concrete realities for everyone.”
They said one chief priority is to pressure the 23 states that have so far resisted expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, saying it would extend coverage to millions of Americans.
The report also urges the government to play a more active role in setting prescription drug prices, and to offer bigger subsidies to help cash-strapped Americans buy insurance on Obamacare’s health exchanges.
The blueprint is a contrast to GOP attempts to repeal and replace the health care law with a new set of reforms.
Armed with twin majorities in Congress, Republicans say Obamacare has resulted in rising costs and left a bloated health care system, crippled by onerous mandates.
The GOP is weighing its best options for chipping away at the law. That includes votes to test Mr. Obama’s veto pen, or the use of a complex budget process, known as reconciliation, to show they can take a swipe at Obamacare while avoiding a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.
Use of reconciliation is limited, however, and some Republicans say that tool should only be used for reforming the tax code.
All sides in the Obamacare fight are also eyeing a Supreme Court decision, due by June, that could prevent the administration from paying subsidies in about two-thirds of the states.
If the court ruled that way, the GOP says there could be a window to try to get some big changes done in Congress.
“We’re rapidly coming to a point where we as a conference are going to have to coalesce behind some of those ideas,” Rep. Michael Burgess, Texas Republican, told The Washington Times last week as both House and Senate Republicans held a policy retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
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Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack acknowledged Monday that the law is “under attack.”
In a blog post, he pledged to oppose any efforts “to destroy the [health law] because our support for the law only grows as we witness the difference it is making in real people’s lives.”
Although Obamacare is divisive, the new report delves into reforms that can draw bipartisan support, such as addressing the shortage of primary care doctors and rewarding providers for the quality, and not quantity, of health care.
“Meaningful social change of the scale we envision here does not occur overnight. Nor is it easy,” the report said. “To achieve these goals, we must lay the groundwork now.”
Families USA also said it wants to solve what it called the health law’s “family glitch,” where if someone in a family gets employer-based insurance, but can’t afford to cover the entire family, those others are still ineligible for Obamacare subsidies.
Families USA says Congress should recalibrate how it determines if job-based insurance is affordable, so family members may obtain the subsidies.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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