Nevada Democrats call for bipartisan work after ‘skinny’ repeal fails

By Yvonne Gonzalez

Friday, July 28, 2017 | 12:31 p.m.

Democrats are calling for a bipartisan process after a scaled-down version of Obamacare repeal failed to pass the Senate early today.

Republicans have faced criticism for closed-door discussions on health care, with some blaming the failure of the ‘skinny’ repeal on a lack of transparency. Democrats and Obamacare supporters have been criticizing Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., over his vote in favor of a pared-down repeal that Republicans dubbed the Health Care Freedom Act.

“Obamacare isn’t the answer, but doing nothing to try to solve the problems it has created isn’t the answer either,” Heller said in a statement Friday. “While not perfect, the Health Care Freedom Act protected coverage for our most vulnerable and provided relief to many hard-working Nevadans by repealing the most onerous provision of Obamacare, the individual mandate.”

Heller, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said he was looking “forward to working with my colleagues on bipartisan solutions to improve our broken health care system.”

Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who is running against Heller in 2018 election, said it’s time to move forward.

“Republicans in Congress must start to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats on finding smart, viable solutions that address market instability, lower health care costs, improve quality of care and expand coverage for our families,” she said.

Rosen is cosponsoring the Marketplace Certainty Act along with about 40 other lawmakers. The legislation seeks to lower costs of premiums.

Rosen says the measure is also intended to encourage insurers to stay in the Silver State Exchange. The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange recently announced that its insurance carriers were eliminating coverage to 14 out of 17 Nevada counties.

Anthem Inc. spokeswoman Kelli Stauning released a statement from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield that cited Nevada’s volatile insurance market in its decision to only file in three counties in 2018.

“Our current health care system is far from perfect, but I know we can work together to find smart solutions for the people of our state,” Rosen said.

Heller stood with Gov. Brian Sandoval in June to express opposition to the version of Obamacare repeal under consideration at the time. Sandoval was the first Republican governor to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

“If you want my support on legislation on health care that fixes the state of Nevada, that supports these people that are on expanded Medicaid, you’ve got to make sure that the Republican governors that have expanded this Medicaid sign off on it,” Heller said.

Sandoval and nine other governors opposed the “skinny repeal” in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

“The Senate should also reject efforts to amend the bill into a "skinny repeal," which is expected to accelerate health plans leaving the individual market, increase premiums, and result in fewer Americans having access to coverage,” the letter says. “Instead, we ask senators to work with governors on solutions to problems we can all agree on: fixing our unstable insurance markets.”

Rosen’s Senate campaign sent a statement early Friday calling Heller’s vote for the “skinny” repeal the biggest broken political promise in modern Nevada history.

“Last month, Sen. Heller promised that he could not vote for legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans,” she said. “Last night, he voted to do just that.”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., joined Democrats in voting against the “skinny” repeal, and said public opposition helped the nighttime vote fail.

“While tonight is a victory, we must all remain vigilant, continue to shine a light on Republican efforts to repeal this bill, and together speak out and fully defeat this effort,” she said.