In election glow, Dems see health care as winning issue

Emboldened by election wins, Democrats are starting to see a political edge in health care, particularly widening Medicaid access for more low-income people.

In Virginia, Democrat Ralph Northam promised a vigorous push as governor to expand Medicaid. Voters who said health care was important went decisively for Northam, according to political analysts. In Maine, voters defied Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s determined opposition by passing a referendum to expand Medicaid to cover an estimated 70,000 more residents.

During Barack Obama’s presidency, health care was often seem as a political liability for Democrats. In 2010, they lost their House majority following the bitter battle to pass the Affordable Care Act with no Republican support. In 2014, Democrats gave up the Senate a year after the Obama administration fumbled the rollout of HealthCare.gov. And candidate Donald Trump seized on rising “Obamacare” premiums as part of his closing argument in the 2016 presidential campaign.

But public opinion seems to have shifted amid widespread opposition to Trump-backed “repeal and replace” bills that would have left millions uninsured and made it harder for people with preexisting health problems to get coverage. The GOP bills not only would have repealed the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, but also would have limited future federal financing for the entire program, even prompting opposition from some Republican governors.

“I think health care is a driving motivator for Democrats to elect people who will not take it away,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, ranking Democrat on the Senate health committee, said Wednesday. “What’s happened in the past six months is that Medicaid went from a hidden thing to something everyone has heard about. Before, nobody said, ‘I’m on Medicaid.’ Now we know it’s our next-door neighbor.”

Medicaid is a federal-state health program that covers about 75 million Americans, or about 1 in 5. Beneficiaries include elderly nursing home residents, severely disabled people of any age, and many newborns and pregnant women. Under the ACA, it was expanded to cover more low-income adults, who in many cases work jobs that don’t provide health insurance.