Democrats Aim to Turn Obamacare Into Asset From Burden in 2018

The individual market makes up just 7% of how Americans got their health care in 2016, compared to 49% of Americans with employer-sponsored coverage and 35% with Medicare or Medicaid. But the Affordable Care Act still drives the politics of health care.

Bipartisan Plan Fails

A bipartisan Senate proposal to stabilize the individual major medical insurance market, sponsored by Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democrat Patty Murray of Washington, failed in March over language restricting abortion funding.

Rep. Ryan Costello, a Pennsylvania Republican who backed the Alexander-Murray plan and opposed the 2017 Obamacare change efforts, said he believes voters will pay more attention to what Republicans are doing now.

"It's going to be much more on what are you doing, or how do you propose to lower costs, not how did you vote on a bill that never became law," said Costello, who isn't seeking re-election.

But Democrats plan to make the argument to voters that Republicans should be held responsible for insurance costs because they control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

'Incredible Contrast'

John Lapp, a Democratic strategist and former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, "There's an incredible contrast with Republicans, who either their answer is to take away your health care, or do nothing and allow the health care market to skyrocket."

Priorities USA, a Democratic super-political action committee, cautioned party members in a memo last month not to lose track of the key issues that animate voters: the economy and health care.

While Trump's policies are "raising the cost of health care and driving up insurance premiums," he gained ground on how the public viewed his handling of health care: from a 30-percentage-point net unfavorable rating to 12-point net unfavorable, said the memo prepared by the Hart Research Group and Global Strategy Group.

Medicare For All

National Republicans say Democrats are still responsible for health care costs because they enacted Obamacare.

"Democrats are responsible for Obamacare and they've done nothing as it's destroyed our health care system," said Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign organization. "Their only answer now moving forward is to try to push a government-controlled, single-payer health care system that'll total $32 trillion."

Such proposals have gained traction among Democrats. The House version of Sen. Bernie Sanders's legislation to create a "Medicare for all" national health care system has 122 Democratic co-sponsors. Liberal groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Justice Democrats have endorsed more than three dozen Democrats running on nationalized, universal health care in Republican-held districts.

But the biggest shift for the party may be Democrats' willingness to defend the Affordable Care Act in competitive, Republican-held districts. Illinois GOP Rep. Randy Hultgren's Democratic opponent, Lauren Underwood, is a nurse and former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official who helped implement the health care law during the Obama administration. Underwood beat six Democratic opponents in the state's March 20 primary.

"While the Affordable Care Act is not perfect — I don't think anybody is asserting that it is — American families have seen the benefits of having coverage options that are affordable," Underwood said. "It touches everybody and they don't want to see it go away."

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