“Healthcare, it’s never been our issue,” President Donald Trump told House Republicans at their annual member retreat earlier this month, alluding to previous Republican swings at reform. “It should be our issue.”
Rising healthcare costs pose an existential threat to the slim Republican majorities in Congress, and losing just the House or Senate in the midterm election to Democrats would spell doom for the GOP’s domestic agenda.
The cost of healthcare is now the most pressing health problem in America, ahead of healthcare access and obesity, according to a poll released by Gallup in mid-December. Seventy percent of Americans now believe that the healthcare system is in crisis or has major problems. No wonder Republican members of Congress are so worried.
A small group of incumbent lawmakers is coming to grips with the fact that they need to do something about it.
Earlier this month, 17 Republican members of the House bucked party leadership and voted to extend Covid-era healthcare tax credits, officially named Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, for three years. Most of those Republicans represent vulnerable swing districts. The group ranges from moderates like Mike Lawler of New York to staunch conservatives Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and María Elvira Salazar of Florida. Her district in South Florida has one of the highest Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollment rates in the U.S.
