In the News

With the Republicans’ attempt to repeal Obamacare faltering, San Diego Rep. Scott Peters and nine other House Democrats unveiled a plan Wednesday to stabilize insurance marketplaces.


The “Solutions over Politics” plan seeks to stabilize the individual health-insurance market while protecting plans for people with pre-existing conditions, keeping costs down for lower-income citizens, promoting enrollment and ensuring everyone pays their share for insurance.


A key part of the plan is continuing the individual mandate, which requires everyone to buy health insurance in order to spread the costs of care.


The plan comes as President’s Trump’s administration nears the six-month mark without a promised repeal and replacement of President Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Care. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Republicans, despite their majority, may need to negotiate with Democrats to stabilize markets because “no action is not an alternative.”


“Even as we work to defeat the disastrous Republican proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act, it is clear that Congress will still need to act to improve our current healthcare system,” said Peters. “These proposed solutions would help increase choice for Americans who use the exchanges and slow the growth of premiums and deductibles by stabilizing the individual markets.”


“This is what Congress should be doing: putting politics aside and working together to protect what is working in our health care system and fix what isn’t,” he added.


The effort by House Democrats is led by Reps. Kurt Schrader or Oregon, Ami Bera of California and Ann McLane Kuster of New Hampshire.


“It’s time to tackle the real issues,” said Schrader. “The Affordable Care Act has helped 20 million people access quality health care, many for the first time in their lives. Medicaid expansion has been an unqualified success in red and blue states. But we have to face facts: some folks in the individual marketplace have seen their premiums and deductibles increase significantly.”