With the death of the Republican health-care bill on Friday, both parties are acknowledging that the standing Affordable Care Act will still need tweaks. "With the demise of the House bill, there's a real window of opportunity for a bipartisan approach to health care," Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) told The New York Times.
Many Republicans have signaled intentions to reach across the aisle for the next phase of health-care reform, with White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus expressing a desire to "get some Democrats on board" in an interview on Sunday. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) explained: "The reason why ObamaCare failed was because it wasn't a bipartisan bill," and Republicans are also "very frankly guilty of that" in their failed American Health Care Act push.
Other Republicans see an opportunity to nudge ObamaCare toward President Trump's promise of an explosion. Republicans "could sabotage the Affordable Care Act's insurance markets, betting that Democrats would be blamed for collapsing coverage choices and spikes in insurance premiums and would then come to the negotiating table ready to toss the law and start fresh," the Times writes.
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Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of HealthCare.gov, explained: "The comments by President Trump and Speaker Ryan predicting the collapse of the ACA and health insurance exchanges could become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
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