The latest on Health Care: the slow march towards a bipartisan solution?

It has not been a good holiday recess if you are a Republican Senator in your home state. Whether you are brave to discuss the Senate Health Care Bill with voters or are trying to avoid them all together, the prospects for reaching a deal that would fulfill the Presidents promise that health care would be terrific and less expensive does not seem plausible right now. Actually, passing a Republican only bill that can draw "moderates" like Susan Collins. Shelley Moore Capito, Dean Heller, Ron Portman, and Lisa Murkowski into the tent seem questionable right now because incarnations of Republican bills reflect the idea of wealth redistribution to the top earners at the cost of cutting the growth rate of Medicaid. This is not a winning idea for Senators in Maine, West Virginia, Ohio, Nevada, Alaska, and quite possibly the rest of the country. Over the last couple of days, Senate Majority Leader McConnell has indicated (this could seem like a threat to some of his colleagues in the Senate GOP conference) that they would have to stabilize the markets and work with Democrats to get that done. Some Republicans have even dared Hillary Clinton and other Democrats to come up with their plans for fixing the system. Clinton quickly obliged and sent her plan from her campaign website. GO HILLARY. Republicans are in a quandary because people were expecting a plan that improved access, care, but also reduced personal costs. Adam Smith, a representative from Washington State, had it right in an interview with MSNBC (link below) that politicians from both sides were not fully honest with the American People. If you want something, you have to pay for it. Health Care is no different. If it is a right that all Americans should have health care, then all Americans have a responsibility to make sure the system they belong to works. Sometimes, that entails a basic benefits package for everyone. Sometimes that means paying more. No one likes to pay more and steps should be taken to cut costs (negotiating the price of drugs for example) where it is apparent. We need a bipartisan solution. Hopefully, the public servants that we elected will come to that conclusion as well.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mcconnell-says-gop-must-shore-up-aca-insurance-markets-if-senate-bill-dies/2017/07/06/e2df2b8e-6251-11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.html?utm_term=.6a116e5f79d0

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/mitch-mcconnell-says-limited-bill-needed-if-obamacare-repeal-bill-dies.html

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/340730-clinton-responds-to-gop-request-for-healthcare-plan-with-campaign

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamacare-charts-20170104-story,amp.html

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/7/4/1677893/-Trump-s-own-Department-of-Health-and-Human-Services-Obamacare-working-as-intended-not-failing?detail=facebook

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/7/15924072/republican-health-bill-bcra-uninsured

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/opinion/republican-healthcare-obamacare.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OD8hGgKHJE