Sen. Bill Cassidy said Wednesday that his health insurance replacement plan is a matter of philosophical difference between political parties.
“Democrats are more comfortable with the federal government putting an individual mandate penalty on us, coercing us to buy insurance,” Mr. Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, said on MSNBC. “Republicans think we should help those families, not penalize them. It’s just a philosophical divide.”
Mr. Cassidy’s plan, which he is co-sponsoring with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, explained that his plan reallocates Obamacare funds directly to states through block grants, leaving it up to each state to decide how they want to build their health care system.
“We are running this through the CHIP program, which is wildly popular with both Democrats and Republicans, and there’s a safeguard, both within the CHIP program, that whatever coverage is offered is adequate and affordable,” Mr. Cassidy said.
The CHIP program is a form of state insurance that offers matching funds to families with children whose income is too high for Medicaid, but still can’t afford coverage for their children. States have flexibility in how their run their CHIP programs under guidelines from the federal government.
Mr. Cassidy also explained that his health insurance plan deals with Medicaid and Obamacare block grant funding separately.
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“There’s two pots of money. There’s traditional Medicaid and then there’s the flexible block grant. The flexible block grant dollars go through the CHIP program, and that has to be focused on those who begin at 50 percent of the federal poverty level going up,” he explained, adding that their plan is to have a per capita cap on Medicaid to help stabilize the program. The per capita cap allows the federal government to have more flexibility in the matching funds for Medicaid programs each year according to enrollment numbers.
The Graham-Cassidy plan has been widely criticized by Democrats for not guaranteeing adequate protections for those with pre-existing conditions. Some Republicans, such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, also say the plan is not a full repeal or replacement of Obamacare, but rather “Obamacare lite.”
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel even criticized the plan, and Mr. Cassidy personally, accusing the senator of lying on his program when he came on earlier this year to explain his replacement plan. Mr. Kimmel became involved in the health insurance debate when he made public comments about his son’s heart condition and how Republicans would take away care from people like his son.
Mr. Cassidy denied that he lied saying that his plan offered “adequate and affordable” coverage for families and did not take away funding from programs like Medicaid.
“I’m sorry he does not understand,” Mr. Cassidy said of Mr. Kimmel on CNN. He added that “more people will have coverage, and we protect those with pre-existing conditions.”
Republicans are hoping to pass this replacement plan prior to Sept. 30 under a simple majority. After that deadline, they will need to have 60 votes to prevent a filibuster, requiring some Democrats to sign on, which appears to be unlikely.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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