President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday pulled the plug on their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Ryan declared it a disappointing day for Republicans. But Alaska’s Republican congressman said he’s celebrating the bill’s defeat.
Rep. Don Young had his doubts about the bill. He never said he’d support it, but even as he headed from his office to the House Chamber to vote, he wasn’t willing to fully declare that he’d vote against it.
“I still have reservations,” Young said.
Within seconds though, Speaker Ryan had pulled the bill down. He didn’t have the votes. Young said later that was fine with him.
“It’s a victory for Alaska and it’s a victory for me,” Young said. “I’ve told them all along this is not the way to do it.”
Young said he thinks House Republicans will try again. Next time, he says, they should slow down and write a bill that addresses the cost of medical care, which he says Ryan’s bill didn’t do.
“No! What did this bill address? Nothing!” Young said. “I know what they were trying to do and it was the wrong thing to do. They were trying to pass the bill on the same day that Obamacare passed.”
Thursday marked seven years since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Young said, in rushing to meet that self-imposed deadline, Republican leaders made the same mistakes Democrats made seven years ago by crafting the bill largely behind closed doors and without any support from the opposite party.
Under the ACA, Alaskans get big tax credits to offset the high cost of insurance on Alaska’s individual market. The Republican repeal bill had smaller tax credits that didn’t vary by state. That’s one reason Young said he’s glad it failed.
“It didn’t accomplish the goals that I wanted to accomplish and it probably would have hurt a lot of my Alaskan people,” Young said.
Young said he and Ryan talked about it repeatedly. He thinks the speaker “improved” the bill some, but not enough. The Washington Post reported that at one point on the House floor, Ryan was on bended knee, apparently pleading with Young to win his vote.
Young said there was no horse-trading going on.
“Nobody offers anything in this business,” Young said. “We talk.”
As for Ryan’s “pleading” Young remembers it differently.
“Yeah, he didn’t go on bended knee,” Young said. “He was just trying to talk to me.”
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
