Editorial: Burr and Tillis stop fighting Obama, fix Obamacare
Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 -- For the last seven years Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis have been in the forefront of the fruitless effort to abolish Obamacare. Sens.Tillis, Burr and the N.C. congressional delegation should work on improving Obamacare's shortcomings -- and end the subterfuge and political wheeling-dealing.
Posted — UpdatedThere’s also a problem when any legislation, particularly an effort to overhaul a massive health services program, is developed behind closed doors and rushed to consideration without anyone understanding how it works or what impact it might have.
There's a problem when virtually no health care providers, those responsible for delivering services under the bill, offer even token support.
There's a problem when folks in Washington keep trying to abolish a program Americans say they like. Americans prefer Obamacare over the proposed Graham-Cassidy bill by 56-33 percent according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll. A new Public Policy Polling national survey found 54 percent approve of the Affordable Care Act while 38 percent disapprove.
Will North Carolina be better off, Sen. Tillis, if it can say to the 1.6 million adults with pre-existing health conditions – including the 86,000 who get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act – that they won’t be covered any more or will have to pay more for coverage that probably won’t be as good?
This notion that Americans should have health coverage isn’t a pipedream puffed up by mushy do-gooders. President Donald Trump was unequivocal earlier this year.
That is the standard the president set for his political party and Congress. How can Tillis and Burr even consider voting for a bill that falls so short of that goal?
It is past time to end the subterfuge and political wheeling and dealing.
Rather than fighting Obamacare, Tillis and Burr need to be working to improve the shortcomings of a program Americans have embraced.
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