The problem with the stalled Senate GOP healthcare plan, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, lies in the fact it is attempting to do too much at once, both healthcare and tax reform, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Sunday.
"Let's first talk, Chris, about why they've had such a problem passing any plan: They are trying to combine tax reform with healthcare reform," Sen. Cassidy told host Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" while politicking for a plan he is proposing with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
"Don't mix the two. We don't mix the two."
Cassidy, referring to his proposal as "Cassidy-Collins," has the backing of six GOP senators, he told Wallace, and is based on "conservative principles that dissolve power to the states."
"Healthcare is like no other issue," Cassidy, a former doctor, said. "It touches people in their most personal being. That is why we got to get it right.
"People don't like change even from worse to better. There's been a lot of promulgation of things that are not true about the healthcare bills that are going up."
Cassidy, who admits some reservations for the current Senate GOP healthcare bill, suggests Congress do healthcare reform first, then do comprehensive tax reform after.
"Cover all, care for preexisting conditions, eliminate the individual and employer mandate, and lower premiums – if we are serious, Cassidy-Collins is the only way to get there," he added.
President Donald Trump's campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare faces obstacles coming out of summer recess and Cassidy gives the Senate a "50-50" chance at passing something by end of the month.
"Our American people want more freedom to make the decision that matters to them and not have someone in Washington, D.C., tell them what that decision should be," Cassidy concluded to Wallace. "Obamacare tells them what that decision should be.
"It may take awhile, but we will get back to that time where that power goes back to the family, and that's where it should be."
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