“Forget About Repealing Obamacare”: Too Many “Message” Votes Have Put The GOP In A Bind
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again? That certainly seems to be the motto of House Republicans. Last week, the House GOP took its 56th vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law.
The bill’s prospects for consideration in the Senate are low and the president has repeatedly promised to veto such a measure anyway. After 56 tries, the House votes to repeal the health care law have become so commonplace that hardly anyone in Washington even blinks an eye at them anymore. Even the president says he’s lost count of how many repeal votes there have been. If House Republicans are serious in their quest to roll back the Affordable Care Act, why do they keep pursuing a strategy they know is doomed to fail?
They do it because these multiple repeal votes aren’t a serious attempt to void the health care law. They are merely symbolic message votes. Voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act was a popular campaign message for candidates on the right, and the recent House vote gave them a chance to fulfill their election year promises.
The repeal votes also give the Republican party a platform to continue talking about their opposition to the health law and to highlight its differences with the president. However, too many “message” votes may have also put the party in a bind. After 56 votes on essentially the same piece of legislation, the Republican party has faced criticism, according to The Hill, for failing to articulate an alternative plan. The repeated symbolic votes also expose the party to criticism for failing to lead in a critical policy area. The time spent in fruitless endeavors to repeal the law could have instead been used to negotiate on policies to fix the Affordable Care Act’s weaknesses. When it comes to health care policy, Republicans have simply become the party of no.
It’s time to switch tactics. Following the House votes last week, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., released a proposal for an alternative health care plan. The proposal is a good first step and perhaps necessary as, for the first time, three House Republicans voted against repeal of the Affordable Care Act in protest of their party’s apparent lack of a plan to replace it.
In addition to putting an actual health care plan on the table, Republicans may also want to consider trying to make changes to the current health care law in pieces. There could be opportunity for negotiation on aspects of the law that remain unpopular, such as the medical device tax, the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board and the definition of a full-time work week. Further, the Supreme Court ruling on the King v. Burwell case later this year regarding the legality of the subsidies being provided for the purchase of health insurance on the federal exchanges could provide Republicans with another opportunity to change the law. If the Supreme Court rules against the subsidies, a legislative fix may be necessary. By taking advantage of these opportunities, the party might be able to make the law more palatable for its constituency and improve its credibility in the process.
House Republicans have made their disdain for the Affordable Care Act very clear. A 57th vote to repeal the law will not be necessary, especially since it, too, would be doomed to fail as long as Obama is in office. However, it’s entirely possible we’ll see one. By focusing strictly on repeal of the entire law, Republicans risk giving the impression that they are completely unwilling to engage in meaningful debate on health care policy. The party should instead work to improve the law and continue putting forward ideas to do so.
A great example of this can be found at the state level. Following the Supreme Court’s decision that the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion was optional, several Republican governors have proposed alternative Medicaid plans to the administration. Some have already been successful in putting their imprint on the president’s initial policy because they came to the table in a serious manner. Republicans at the federal level would do well to follow suit.
By: Cary Gibson, a Government Relations Consultant with Prime Policy Group; Thomas Jefferson Street Blog, U. S. News and World Report, February 10, 2015
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