Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is saying “no” to Senate Republican leadership plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement.
“The Senate should take a step back and engage in a bipartisan process to address the failures of the ACA and stabilize the individual markets,” Murkowski said July 18, in a statement released from her Washington D.C. office. “That will require members on both sides of the aisle to roll up their sleeves and take this to the open committee process where it belongs.
“The individual markets in states like Alaska and in rural communities across America has continued to deteriorate since we last voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Alaskans have seen their premiums increase over 200 percent, only one insurer remains on our individual market, and the state was forced to enact a costly reinsurance program to keep our sole remaining provider from leaving,” she said.
“At the same time, the coverage offered on the exchange has become coverage in name only for too many Alaskans with premiums close to $1,000 a month on average and many facing deductibles approaching $10,000. Repealing the ACA without a clear path forward just creates confusion and greater uncertainty.”
Murkowski is one of three Republican women senators declining to support the Senate effort led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader. The others are Senators Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine.
At the end of a seven-year GOP effort to dump President Obama’s health care legislation, President Trump said his plan now is to simply “let Obamacare fail.”
Meanwhile Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who has commented little on the health care legislation, said kept his campaign promise to vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and intends to keep my promise to vote again for repeal, and work for a replacement that works for Alaska.
