As GOP Continues to Press for Health Care Law’s Repeal During Pandemic, Senate Republicans Face Increasing “Risk”

Republican Strategist Admits: “Politically, It’s Pretty Dumb to Be Talking About How We Need to Repeal Obamacare in the Middle of a Pandemic”

A new report from the New York Times finds that Senate Republicans are facing growing “risk” for their continued push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, with even GOP strategists admitting “it’s pretty dumb to be talking about how we need to repeal Obamacare in the middle of a pandemic.” The issue will be back in the spotlight this week as the Trump administration files legal briefs asking the Supreme Court to put an end to the health care law that protects people with pre-existing conditions and expanded Medicaid. Health care is “consistently near the top of the list of issues voters care about” and that has only increased this year as the coronavirus pandemic has raised Americans’ concerns about lack of access to affordable coverage.

“Even in the middle of a pandemic that has infected more than 2 million across the country and killed 120,000 Americans, Senate Republicans are still enabling this dangerous lawsuit to eliminate the health care law, which would increase costs and take away pre-existing conditions coverage,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “GOP senators who have voted repeatedly to gut protections for pre-existing conditions and refuse to abandon this partisan crusade for repeal are on the wrong side of this issue, and their health care records are a toxic liability for voters.”

New York Times: G.O.P. Faces Risk From Push to Repeal Health Law During Pandemic
Republicans and the Trump administration continue to press to end the Affordable Care Act even as the virus leaves more Americans worried about affordable health coverage.

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg

June 22, 2020

Key Points:

• Republicans are increasingly worried that their decade-long push to repeal the Affordable Care Act will hurt them in the November elections, as coronavirus cases spike around the country and millions of Americans who have lost jobs during the pandemic lose their health coverage as well.

• The issue will come into sharp focus this week, when the White House is expected to file legal briefs asking the Supreme Court to put an end to the program, popularly known as Obamacare.

• Republicans have long said their goal is to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act but have yet to agree on an alternative. This week’s back-to-back developments… has put Republicans in a difficult spot, strategists say.

• “Politically, it’s pretty dumb to be talking about how we need to repeal Obamacare in the middle of a pandemic,” said Joel White, a Republican strategist who specializes in health policy and has presented legislative proposals to House and Senate Republicans and the White House.

• Health care is consistently near the top of the list of issues voters care about… Democrats won the House in 2018 in large part by emphasizing health care — a playbook they intend to revive in 2020. The pandemic has also put Republicans at risk of losing the Senate, said Jessica Taylor, who analyzes Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

• [Cook Political]… rates Senate races in five states — North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, Arizona and Montana — as tossups. All have Republican incumbents.

• In Montana, Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, jumped into the race to defeat the Republican incumbent, Senator Steve Daines, in March, just as the pandemic was exploding. Three days later, a liberal group, Protect Our Care, announced a $250,000 ad campaign attacking Mr. Daines as “dead set on taking away Montanans’ health care” after voting five times to repeal the health law. Cook Political moved the race to its tossup column last week.

• But with people now worried that infection with Covid-19 will become a pre-existing condition, Democrats say the health law — which requires insurers to cover such conditions — is becoming more attractive to voters.

• In Iowa, Democrats are running ads attacking Senator Joni Ernst, the incumbent Republican, over her vote to repeal the health law.

• In Alaska, the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan Sullivan, is facing a tougher-than-expected challenge from a doctor named Al Gross, who is running as an independent but has been embraced by Democrats.

• The coronavirus has changed the national discussion around health care in ways that go beyond the issue of cost. The pandemic has exposed racial disparities in care, making health care a more important issue for African-Americans and Latinos, core Democratic constituencies. And with everyone at risk from a fast-spreading, and sometimes fatal, infectious disease, Democrats have an easier time making the case that everyone should be covered.

• “For years, Republicans banked on the idea that people didn’t care about other people’s health care — that you would only care about your own, and their entire campaign against the Affordable Care Act was built on that assumption,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who specializes in health care messaging. “People now see a clear and present threat when others don’t have health care,” he said. “Republicans have no response to that because their entire worldview on health care is built on an assumption that’s now out of date.”

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