Renacci’s claim that Brown backed single-payer is false

WASHINGTON — Republican Jim Renacci accused his Democratic opponent, Sen. Sherrod Brown, of wanting to adopt a single-payer health plan even though Brown last fall refused to co-sponsor a similar measure.

In a statement Wednesday, Renacci’s campaign charged that Brown “wants to take away your health insurance” and replace it with a governmentfinanced system similar to Medicare, which currently provides health coverage for people 65 and older.

But Brown did not join other Senate Democratic progressives in September in co-sponsoring legislation introduced by Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Brown said in a statement at the time he supports Medicare for all, but added, “right now, I’m focused on building bipartisan support for my bill to allow people to buy into the Medicare program at age 55, which will cut costs and expand choices for Ohioans.”

Sanders’ bill essentially would have made Medicare available for everyone in the United States regardless of age. The bill would be financed by tax increases on all working Americans.

Sanders’ home state of Vermont in 2014 dropped efforts to install its own single-payer system after state lawmakers discovered how much they would have to raise taxes.

Brown in 2010 voted for the health-care overhaul known as Obamacare, which maintained the current system of private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, a statefederal program that pays health costs for low-income and disabled people.

That law, known as the Affordable Care Act, extended insurance to roughly 40 percent of the 46 million Americans who in 2010 lacked coverage. It not only enabled Renacci middle-income people to buy federally subsidized private insurance policies, but allowed Ohio to accept billions of federal dollars to expand Medicaid coverage to 700,000 lower-income people, many of them working poor.

Renacci’s campaign launched the attack as the trustees for Social Security and Medicare released their annual report saying the Medicare hospitalization trust fund will be depleted by 2026. A year earlier, the trustees said Medicare would be solvent through 2029.

“Leave it to a career politician like Sherrod Brown to think we should take a program that is on the verge of insolvency, replicate it and force every American to rely upon it for health care,” said Leslie Shedd, a Renacci adviser.

Rachel Petri, a Brown campaign spokeswoman, said Brown “is focused on a plan that would allow people to buy into Medicare earlier, which would help Ohio workers with the skyrocketing costs caused by Washington Republicans’ healthcare sabotage.”

Neither Brown nor Renacci have proposed solutions to make Medicare solvent. Brown’s plan to allow Americans at age 55 or older to buy into Medicare would probably add to the program’s costs, even though Brown’s aides insist their bill would require the secretary of Health and Human Services not to add to the program’s costs.

Renacci, who opposed Obamacare, last year voted for the 10-year, $1.5 trillion tax cut. Independent analysts say Medicare can only be made solvent through either massive tax increases, tough restraints on the program’s growth rate or a combination of both.

Meanwhile, Renacci was to be the beneficiary of a fundraiser set for Wednesday evening in Washington hosted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The event was to include Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and other Senate Republicans.