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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Each of the seven California Democrats who flipped Republican congressional seats within the midterm election campaigned for extra government-funded well being care — with most of them calling for a whole authorities takeover.
So after they be a part of the Golden State’s delegation this week, they’ll make it the biggest state bloc to help “Medicare-for-all” within the U.S. House of Representatives. And Democrats, in fact, will management the House.
Despite this political shift, the fact is that there’s in all probability not going to be a lot progressive well being care laws popping out of Congress within the subsequent two years — a degree on which even Democratic lawmakers agree.
“We need to do the things that are doable — that aren’t pie in the sky,” mentioned U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat and the dean of the California delegation.
Democrats will maintain 46 of the state’s 53 congressional seats within the House. It’s the biggest contingent of Democrats the state has ever despatched to Congress, in keeping with membership rosters on the congressional History, Art & Archives website. All however seven of them have publicly supported, at one time, some type of government-financed well being care — whether or not a sweeping Medicare-for-all program that would offer medical insurance to all Americans, or an non-obligatory “public option” plan for individuals who need it.
California’s Democratic junior senator, Kamala Harris, who’s considering a presidential bid, additionally helps Medicare-for-all, calling it “the moral and ethical thing to do.”
But the U.S. Senate will stay underneath Republican management, and Republican President Donald Trump has lambasted the concept of extra authorities involvement in well being care. Because of that political actuality, Feinstein and others have mentioned, the state’s freshman lawmakers who’re wanting to push ahead on Medicare-for-all or a public possibility must refocus.
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In a midterm election the place well being care ranked because the No. 1 concern of many citizens, congressional newcomers Josh Harder, Katie Porter, Katie Hill, Harley Rouda and Mike Levin received their elections after campaigning for Medicare-for-all, the idea of 1 government-run well being care program made in style by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) throughout his 2016 presidential bid.
Meanwhile, candidates Gil Cisneros and T.J. Cox promoted a public possibility, which might enable shoppers to voluntarily purchase in to a government-financed well being care plan, equivalent to Medicare or Medicaid.
None of the seven freshmen Democrats agreed to an interview to debate their concepts about well being care within the new Congress, nor would they supply a spokesperson. It’s unclear whether or not they’ll make an enormous push for the progressive causes they pitched on the marketing campaign path.
In a twist, a mid-December ruling by a Texas decide that declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional may really assist Democrats. Instead of arguing for Medicare-for-all, they will now pivot to defending the regulation and its in style provisions, together with protections for folks with preexisting situations.
“A conservative judge in Texas may have given new Democratic representatives in California a lot more leeway on health care than they had a week ago,” mentioned Dan Schnur, a University of Southern California professor and former Republican strategist. “There’s a lot of potential health care legislation that’s going to be very popular in their districts.”
In the weeks main as much as the election, Harder, who beat Republican incumbent Jeff Denham within the Central Valley, was already tempering expectations about how efficient Democrats may very well be subsequent 12 months.
“I think the reality is under a Trump presidency, it’s probably not going to be passed in the next two years,” Harder mentioned about Medicare-for-all. “But we need to be making it very clear what we’re standing up for, and we’re standing up for the fact that every individual needs to be covered.”
A day after she received her congressional seat, Porter, who made Medicare-for-all an integral a part of her marketing campaign, told supporters it must wait.
“I think until we pass campaign finance reform, doing anything on health care is going to be a big challenge,” she mentioned.
Part of the problem for Porter, together with the remainder of her new colleagues, is that they hail from swing districts. Each of them flipped Republican seats, they usually might want to undertake a extra centrist tone in the event that they wish to keep in Congress, political observers say.
“The reality of advocating for single-payer and the actuality of what it means is sobering,” mentioned Lanhee Chen, director of home coverage research at Stanford University. “If you’re vulnerable, on Day One, by the nature of demographics of your district, I think it becomes harder to embrace.”
And whereas California voters ushered in a brand new class of progressives, additionally they gave a sixth time period to Feinstein, who has overtly warned towards the price and feasibility of a Medicare-for-all system. And probably incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has mentioned she intends to give attention to fixing lingering points with the federal well being care regulation, not push forward with Medicare-for-all.
Other centrist Democrats say Congress must work out the best way to stabilize the well being care markets or enable Americans 55 and older to purchase into Medicare, which is presently open to these 65 and older. Feinstein, for instance, additionally helps giving Medicare the power to barter the worth of medicine.
“Let’s build off of the gains we made in the Affordable Care Act,” mentioned Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove), “but let’s also address some of the things Republicans did to undermine the ACA markets.”
Use Our Content This story might be republished without spending a dime (details).
This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Samantha Young: syoung@kff.org”>syoung@kff.org, @youngsamantha
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