Malloy in bigger role against GOP health care plan

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has become a leading voice of opposition among Democratic governors opposed to Republican attempts to repeal and defund the Affordable Care Act.

A national political observer said Monday that Malloy’s highprofile attack showed states around the country another dissenting voice among Democrats solidly opposed to the GOP effort.

An early proponent of the health-exchange protocol pioneered by former President Barack Obama, Malloy was front and center last week after a National Governors Association event in Rhode

Island with Vice President Mike Pence, in which the planned reorganization of the ACA was harshly criticized by Democrats. They once again characterized the GOP Congressional bill as an attempt to give tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of the nation’s most vulnerable.

Malloy said his experience with AccessHealthCT, the state’s insurance marketplace, combined with his leadership role at a second-term chairman of the 16-member Democratic Governors Association, gave him the experience and credibility to play a national role in battling the issue.

He said GOP efforts to foist the costs of expanding Medicare health care benefits onto states will be a budget-buster across the country. He said while Pence’s briefing Friday was disappointing, a Saturday session with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Seema Verma, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was infuriating.

“They said we’re going to be OK because we’re going to make it up by innovation,” Malloy said in an interview in his state Capitol office. “It is utterly ridiculous and I called them on it and I don’t mind calling them on it because what they really want to do is transfer this obligation to states, either because they’re either too chicken to say what they are actually doing, or they’re too chicken to take responsibility for what they’re doing. So they want to shift it ultimately to governors and state legislators.”

By 2026, Medicaid costs will increase to $2.8 billion to retain current annual services for Connecticut, according to projections. Under the ACA, 90 percent of the state’s costs for the disabled and indigent are paid from federal sources.

Of the nearly 30 governors in attendance at the NGA gathering in Providence, Malloy said both Republicans and Democrats agreed that the current ACA can be improved. He likes the idea of several states getting together to run exchanges through which residents can sign up for various levels of health insurance coverage.

Several Republicans maintain reservations about the pending Senate Republican plan, which has been put on hold pending the recovery of Sen. John McCain of Arizona following weekend surgery.

A request for comment from the 33-member Republican Governors Association was not returned Monday, while the Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its assessment of the latest Senate draft on Tuesday.

Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Inside Elections, said Malloy earned some increased national attention over the weekend.

“I think Malloy has an outsized profile with his role with the DGA,” Gonzales said in an interview. “The Democratic Party is full of critics of the Republicans’ plan, but with no clear leader, he is one of many critics.”

Gonzales said that Malloy’s weekend outburst might have played better around the country.

“To a national audience, the governor might look like a voice outside of Washington. He’s had his own problems inside the state.”

Overall, the controversial rewriting of the ACA, combined with the mercurial President Donald J. Trump, seems to be forcing Republican governors and other elected GOP officials to search their own political souls.

“Under normal conditions the party defers to the president when they win the White House,” Gonzales said. “President Trump is a unique figure and more Republicans are emboldened. We’re at the stage where every Republican elected official is trying to navigate their own way through the Trump administration.”