Democrats wrestle with election-year message on health care
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ringed by a handful of cheering activist supporters, liberal House Democrats gathered outside the Capitol this week to announce they were forming a caucus to seek “Medicare for All” — shorthand for government-financed health care.
At the same time Thursday, Democratic senators were focused in a different direction. They were introducing a resolution aimed at rocking Republicans onto the defensive about Trump administration efforts to undermine former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Don’t bet on either proposal going anywhere in the Republican-run House or Senate. But the deeper problem for Democrats is that the two messages — reinventing the nation’s health care system versus defending Obama’s popular statute— divide the party as it aims to win congressional control in this fall’s elections.
All Democrats oppose President Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to scuttle Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and many have backed expanding government-paid health care, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. But many also consider it a misstep to call campaign-season attention to Democratic efforts to restructure the country’s $3 trillion-a-year health care system.
Promoting “Medicare for All” opens the door for Republicans to accuse Democrats of plotting tax increases, unaffordable federal costs and the loss of employer-provided coverage, these Democrats argue. They say it’s better to play offense by focusing on controlling medical costs and opposing GOP efforts to demolish the 2010 health care law.
“Every Democrat is being asked, ‘Do you support this or do you not?’ and it’s becoming a political wedge in an election year,” Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., said of the “Medicare for All” drive. “And I think we should be focusing on the terrible things that are happening under this administration right now.”
“We can fix what we’ve got and that’s what we should be doing,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said this week.
The new caucus has more than 60 members, nearly 1-in-3 House Democrats, including many from safely blue districts where liberal voters prevail. Backing “Medicare for All” lets them tap into activists’ fervor for universal health care that helped propel Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to an unexpectedly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
“If you live in America, you’ve got a right to affordable quality health care, period,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., a caucus founder, prompting applause from supporters watching her group’s news conference Thursday.