Health care debate should be open and transparent

When Republicans campaigned last year on a pledge to “repeal and replace Obamacare,” they failed to add, as has become obvious, “with something just as flawed.”

Senate Republican leaders released their draft last Thursday of the much-anticipated revision of the health-care law after crafting their plan behind closed doors — and ignoring the concerns of governors and other stakeholders — in order to rush through a vote in time to go home for their July 4 recess.

Senators want fireworks? They’ll see them. The health and well-being of millions of American depend on Congress getting this right. Instead the Senate GOP plan trades one divisive, partisan and ill-vetted health-care overhaul for another.

No one suggests the Affordable Care Act could not be dramatically improved. Parts of it were economically unworkable, but it is the uncertainty created by the impending

Republican repeal that has accelerated the exodus of insurance companies from participating; in as many as 20 of Ohio’s 88 counties, residents won’t have a single insurer willing to sell to them a plan on the exchange in 2018.

What the Affordable Care Act did accomplish, and spectacularly, was to establish the expectation that all Americans have a right to accessible and affordable health care. The ACA has proven to be neither for many, but Republicans did promise to come up with something better . ...

The GOP will live with the legacy of this bill for decades to come.

After years of whining, is this the best they can do?

A replacement plan should improve affordability, restore certainty and stability to the insurance markets, encourage innovation and thin regulations. And it should be done with full transparency and open debate to ensure a sustainable and successful reform.

Read the full editorial from the Columbus Dispatch at bit. ly/2tcm0xN