Are we ready to try for a bipartisan healthcare plan ?

The Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 has not yet been passed. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell developed his plan in secret and was then not able to get the 50 votes he needed to get it through the Senate by the July 4 recess.

The Majority leader is still working toward 50 and probably modifying the Bill to help get there. It is a very tricky task modifying it to make it more palatable to extremely conservative Senators without adding some provisions that will cause the loss of support of other Senators.

Will this again all be done in secret and and attempt made to rush a vote before Senators have time to fully digest the new version of the bill or consider effects on their states?

Senator McConnell is facing the prospect of trying for a bipartisan solution if the GOP cannot do it alone. I don’t think he is real happy about the prospect.

But finding a bipartisan healthcare plan sounds good to me. I don’t think there are very many who think Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act or ACA) is a perfect solution to our healthcare problems. Keeping the good parts but fix the parts not working would be one option. It could also be a totally new plan, but one they both sides agree on.

Governors John Kasich (R, Ohio) and John Hickenlooper (D, Colorado) wrote a good article a few weeks ago about why one-party solutions to healthcare fail and the need for a bipartisan healthcare plan.