Endangered Senate Democrats are trying desperately to retain their icy grip on power, and are now proposing to expand Obamacare.
Vulnerable Democrat Senators Mark Begich (AK), Joe Manchin (WV), Mary Landrieu (LA), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), and Mark Warner (VA), and are joined by Angus King, a left-leaning Maine independent, in proposing to add a Copper Plan to the Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum plan levels.
Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas was too scared even to join them.
As David Hogberg explains over at the National Center blog,
The centerpiece of this fix is “a new lower cost, high-deductible option called the Copper Plan, in addition to the existing Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze options in the marketplace that would give consumers more control over their own coverage, spur competition, and, most importantly, increase affordability. The new Copper Plan would meet the essential benefits laid out by the Affordable Care Act.”
Seriously?!?
Last time I checked, people on the exchange were not crying out for more plans with even higher deductibles. In fact, we’ve had numerousnewsarticles with people complaining how high the deductibles and out-of-pocket (OOP) costs were for the cheapest plans.
As usual, liberals can’t think of any way to “expand choice” that doesn’t involve more government.
While all of these incumbents say they’d like to fix Obamacare, if any of them had the sense to oppose it in 2010 we’d have all been spared this unholy national nightmare.
The only fix for ObamaCare is full repeal of the law followed by sensible reforms, including providing equal tax treatment for people with employer plans and people who pay for their won insurance. That would make Health Savings Accounts competitive with third-party-payer insurance plans. HSAs allow individuals to participate in their own health care decisions as consumers in a freer, more competitive market, and to keep their money if they don’t spend it on medical care they don’t want.