Trying to mend differences
Governor and others working on proposal to draw both parties.
Between gasps from an oxygen tank, Donna Smith told Gov. John Hickenlooper the story about how medical bills bankrupted her family and how she needs the health care exchange to find insurance.
She encouraged the governor to continue his work to find fixes that will reassure those such as her who depend on the Affordable Care Act.
“We are going to have to let people like me know that we don’t want you to die — that we don’t want you to end your life because you don’t want to bankrupt your family again,” Smith, a liberal activist, said at the governor’s recent town hall in Aurora.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said the situation illustrates the urgency behind his effort with other governors — notably Ohio’s John Kasich, a Republican — to craft a bipartisan proposal to improve the nation’s health care system. “People’s lives depend on it,” Hickenlooper said.
The Hickenlooper-Kasich coalition is expected to present their ideas as early as Thursday, and the duo promised substantive policy initiatives that can win support from Democrats and Republicans.
It’s a difficult task, given the inability of the Republican-led Congress to advance a plan earlier this year to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, sometimes called Obamacare.
“I’m not blind. We can come up with some great ideas, and right now, the way the landscape in Washington appears,
even the best ideas would probably be shouted down,” Hickenlooper said in a recent interview. “We know it’s a hard job. We know it’s not an easy task. But we gain nothing if we just sit on the sidelines.”
The moment represents a significant test for Hickenlooper, who is establishing a larger national profile and generating speculation about a possible 2020 presidential bid. He is scheduled to testify Sept. 7 on Capitol Hill before the Senate Health Committee about ways to fix the health care law.
“I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like the Kasich-Hickenlooper alliance,” said Alan Salazar, the governor’s former chief political strategist. The possible exception, he said, is former Republican President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Democrat. “It is interesting and kind of refreshing to be reminded of the power of bipartisanship in our politics.”
Hickenlooper and Kasich worked behind the scenes for weeks to develop a blueprint that will focus on stabilizing the health insurance markets and now are trying to garner support from other governors.
The final proposal is expected to request more flexibility for states to experiment with cost-saving measures, explore supports for the most sick and expensive people through reinsurance or high-risk pools and loosen the mandate that businesses with more than 50 employees provide health coverage because of concerns it is limiting job growth.
Hickenlooper has also suggested reductions in the benefits that insurance plans are required to offer, a move that may draw ire from his own party.
“If you are going to try to find a bipartisan solution, you are probably going to lose some of the most conservative Republicans and you are probably going to lose some of the most liberal Democrats,” he said an interview. “But in the middle, you might be able to find those 61 votes (for Senate passage).”
One divisive topic the Hickenlooper-Kasich plan won’t touch: Medicaid. The government health care program for low-income people is too polarizing, as many Republicans want to see significant cuts and Democrats largely want to preserve the expansion.
“We’re just focusing on the insurance markets now and trying to stabilize them,” Kasich told Colorado Public Radio in a recent interview. “We’re not even talking about Medicaid at this point because, you know, that’s part of Medicaid expansion. But we’re not going to go there now. That should come later as part of an overall entitlement reform package.”
Coalition’s ignition
Hickenlooper and Kasich began to form their alliance in March and tasked their health care experts to craft a series of common principles to guide the discussions and build a larger coalition. Hickenlooper took the lead on bringing other Democratic governors to the table, and Kasich did the same with Republicans.
The two sides encountered significant differences early in the talks when they pushed deep into various policies that contribute to rising health care costs and access to insurance. But both agreed to put those questions to the side.
The group in June issued to U.S. Senate leaders a letter that criticized the House-approved repeal bill because it undercut coverage for the most sick and failed “to provide the necessary resources to ensure that no one is left out.”
The governors issued more joint statements in July, and the effort gained momentum as Hickenlooper and Kasich traveled to Washington and appeared on national television to make their case. The White House sought to pressure Republican governors who opposed the Senate health care bill, but the resistance from state leaders still contributed to the legislation’s failure.
“As the debate goes on, more Republican governors and more Democratic governors feel responsible and that they need to be part of the discussion,” Hicken- looper said.
Effort complicated
But as the effort gained traction, the political ambitions of Hickenlooper and Kasich began to cloud the picture. Kasich, a Republican candidate in 2016, is apparently considering a bid in 2020 against President Donald Trump. And Hickenlooper is being mentioned as a potential Democratic candidate after landing on the short list for vice president in 2016.
The combination fueled speculation about a possible unity ticket with the two governors — which Hickenlooper and Kasich each rejected outright last week.
In an early August interview, Hickenlooper said he expected the talk to emerge. “People are going to say that I’m trying to join up with Kasich to run for president. I mean, that’s not going to happen, trust me,” he said.
Hickenlooper said his political motivations are not a part of the health care effort. “The haters are going to hate. That’s the way it is,” he said.
“Hard conversations”
At the Aurora town hall, Hickenlooper warned Smith and other health care advocates that not everyone will like the end product, promising “hard conversations” in the months ahead.
“I think we, as a society, have to … come together, and we are going to have to make some hard choices,” he said, pointing to burgeoning government spending on health care. “Not everyone is going to have everything they want on health care. But I think basic health care … should belong to each of us.”
A moment after Smith spoke, another woman rose to applaud Hickenlooper’s work with Kasich and asked a blunt question: Will the effort even make a difference?
The ever-optimistic governor acknowledged the challenge with a sober response: “We’ll have the floor,” he said, “(but) whether they listen to what we say, we’ll see.”