Arizona congresswoman: Obamacare rework needs bipartisan touch

PHOENIX — An Arizona congresswoman said she was unsure about the future of the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, but one thing was for sure: It needed fixing. Fast.

“The exchange is broken in Arizona,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said. “Health care is not affordable.”

The latest effort to repeal Obamacare failed late last month. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was one of three Republicans who voted against the so-called skinny repeal that would have removed the most unpopular parts of the law.

The congresswoman said she hoped her colleagues had learned that health care needed to be a bipartisan effort, not something approved on party lines.

“They can choose to move forward on a partisan effort again or they can do what we should have done from the very beginning, which is to find a bipartisan path forward to solve the parts that aren’t working – and protect the parts that are working.”

Sinema has taken her own advice. She said a bipartisan group consisting of herself and 39 other Democrats and Republicans have a set of principles they would like to see implemented on any health care bill moving forward.

She said one part of Obamacare, the health insurance tax, should be tossed.

“This is a tax on employers, that gets passed right along to employees and families,” she said. “It can cost up to $4,000 a year in additional premium costs.”

Another fix the group would like to see added would be to modify risk reinsurance, an industry standard designed to spread financial risk.

“Another thing we want to do is help with risk reinsurance so we have a better way to help pay for the folks who have really tough diseases or, maybe, they’ve got a kid who’s got some special healthcare needs,” she said.

“They’ve been doing everything right, and yet they’re saddled with these massive healthcare costs.”

There are some parts of Obamacare Sinema’s group would like to keep, such as the Medicaid expansion.

“You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” she said.

Congress was expected to take up the health care issue again when it returned after Labor Day from the August recess.