President-elect Donald Trump today leaned on Congress to quickly get rid of President Obama’s signature heath care law, which he called a catastrophe.
Lisa Murkowski, though, is among five Republicans in the U.S. Senate sponsoring an amendment that would slow the law’s repeal.
“Trying to rush things through to a conclusion, in my mind, doesn’t make sense,” Murkowski said. “And I know everyone has said: ‘Repeal. Repeal. Repeal.’ We’re going to repeal it. We’re going to repeal it.”
But Murkowski said Congress needs time to craft a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, and she said the repeal and replacement should coincide. She said the new Trump administration will need time, too.
“What they’re doing and what we’re doing ultimately has to work together in order to knit something that’s going to be good for the Alaskan constituency and the American public,” Murkowski said in an interview in her office on Capitol Hill.
Murkowski doesn’t have a specific replacement plan in hand. Some elements of the Affordable Care Act she wants to preserve, like retaining coverage for people with pre-exisiting conditions and allowing children to stay on their parents’ policy until age 26.
Murkowski said the ACA’s subsidized insurance is important to a small but significant number of Alaskans, and she spoke favorably of the coverage extended to low-income households, although she did not directly say whether she’s committed to keeping the law’s federal support for expanded Medicaid.
“It is absolutely a key part of this discussion, especially as it relates to states like Alaska that have moved forward with Medicaid expansion,” Murkowski said.
But Murkowski said she wants to drop the individual mandate. Defenders of the Affordable Care Act insist the mandate is key because it ensures enough healthy people buy insurance to spread the costs around.
The amendment Murkowski sponsored would extend until March a legislative deadline for the budget process. She said that would allow enough time to draft a new plan, which she said will require Democratic votes to pass.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her atlruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Lizhere.
