Kasich open to flexibility in new health-care plan
WASHINGTON — Ohio Gov. John Kasich wants increased flexibility in the essential health benefits established under Obamacare, arguing that items such as maternity coverage should be on a menu of options that customers have the choice to purchase.
“As long as there’s a common-sense interpretation of what ‘comprehensive’ is, it’s all cool,” Kasich said.
He noted that a healthy 23-year-old patient might opt for a catastrophic healthcare plan and a medical savings account rather than a plan that includes maternity care.
“But,” he added, “there has to be some sense of core benefits.”
Kasich, a Republican, appeared with Democrat Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Friday at a panel discussion jointly organized by the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Center for American Progress in downtown Washington.
The 2010 law known as Obamacare requires all Americans to either have health insurance or pay a penalty, subsidizing the cost of coverage for those who cannot afford it. Customers are required to buy plans that cover a range of “essential services,” including maternity care, hospital coverage and other benefits.
Kasich said the issue has now become so tightly wrapped in politics that “Republicans don’t want to say they will be connected to anything related to Obamacare no matter what it is, and Democrats don’t want to be connected to anything that erodes any part of Obamacare.”
He said he wishes they could focus on solving the problem, rather than instinctively being for or against something.
“I want to have a marketplace where people can buy insurance. And if people can’t afford it, let’s give them some money so that they can have it … why do we have to keep putting names on everything?” he asked.
The two appeared Friday under the auspices of promoting their own plan to stabilize the individual insurance marketplaces — Hickenlooper testified about the proposal before a Senate committee Thursday — but were also clearly in town to model the benefits of a bipartisan partnership.
“John and I have fun,” Kasich said. “We like each other. We have a great time. So what is there to fight about? Just get through it.”
Earlier in the day, the two gushed over the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers that is pushing a solution similar to the Kasich– Hickenlooper proposal. Kasich urged the caucus to “solve problems from the middle out.”
Arguing that partisan fighting and pandering to the bases are “ruining the country,” Kasich made it clear he thought both tax reform and a recent executive order regarding immigration are issues on which both sides need to work collaboratively.
Later, at the panel discussion, the governors were asked where they disagree on health care. They wouldn’t answer.
“I don’t like to answer those questions,” said Hickenlooper. “Because that’s exactly what happened to the Beatles,” who broke up in 1969-70 after internal dissension.
“Why would we talk about that?” Kasich asked. “If two sides want to come up with something, there are really no obstacles. Work your way around it. If you have a will, there’s a way.”