Did the GOP Just Surrender on ObamaCare?

 

IBDEditorials.com

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell answers questions during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. From left are Sen. John Barrasso, Sen. John Thune, McConnell and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn. AP

Health Reform: Voters who handed Republicans control of the Senate, largely on the promise of killing ObamaCare, must be wondering why they bothered. Senate leaders now want to protect the law for the next two years.

In June, the Supreme Court is expected to rule in a case that could eliminate ObamaCare subsidies for anyone signing up through Healthcare.gov.

For those who haven't followed the case, Halbig v. Burwell claims the law, as written, allows tax subsidies only for those who enroll through state-run ObamaCare exchanges, of which there are only 14. Anyone who has to use the federal exchange would be out of luck.

Those who want ObamaCare gone see this case as a prime opportunity to replace the law, or at least chuck big chunks of it. One idea was to pass a bill letting affected states opt out of ObamaCare, while using other means to protect those now getting subsidies.

Instead, the Senate leadership appears to be listening to warnings from the liberal camp that they will suffer politically if the court strikes down federal subsidies.

Democrats, the argument goes, will pound the GOP mercilessly for forcing millions to drop their now-unaffordable health plans, just as voters are starting to pay attention to the 2016 elections.

This week, the top five Republicans in the Senate — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sens. John Cornyn, John Thune, John Barrasso and Roy Blunt — signed on to co-sponsor a bill introduced by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson that would protect federal exchange subsidies until 2017, should the court strike them down.

The idea is to get past next year's elections safely, then take up the matter after Obama is gone and, hopefully, a Republican is in the White House.

Johnson says his bill is "a first step toward reversing the damage that ObamaCare has inflicted on the American health care system." How so? Because the bill would repeal the individual and employer mandates, and remove the mandate that insurers cover a generous package of "essential benefits."

It's more like a surrender. These senators are telling the public that they can't win a political battle over ObamaCare, or don't know how to win it, or just don't want to be bothered. Either way, by conceding that the subsidies are so popular and so vital to Americans after a little more than one year in force, Johnson's bill would only cement the law further in place.

What's more, this approach will embolden Obama to demand that Republicans strip out any provisions he doesn't like before he'll sign it. Since the GOP will already have put itself over a barrel on the subsidies, what recourse would they have to fight back?

Here's a better idea.

Republicans should mount an aggressive campaign to explain how there are many far better and much cheaper ways to achieve ObamaCare's goals of expanding insurance coverage. Then they should offer real alternatives that the public will embrace, and that can be put in place if the Supreme Court strikes down the subsidies.

It's time the GOP put Obama and the Democrats on the defensive on health care for a change.