Fresh perspective is needed on healthcare reform, and it needs to come from outside Washington and through the nation's governors, Sen. Bill Cassidy said Thursday, as senators don't want to make matters worse for Americans suffering under Obamacare.
"We've got to think about that family around the kitchen table that can't afford their payments," said the Louisiana Republican during an MSNBC "Morning Joe" interview.
"We don't want to make things worse for them."
Cassidy also disagreed that there seems to be a split between the House Republican Caucus and the Senate about the government's role in making healthcare more affordable.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, he said, does not favor a plan that would give money to the wealthy while taking healthcare coverage away from the poor, for example.
"There is some role over whether to help lower income Americans afford insurance," Cassidy said of the government's involvement in such a plan. "The difference is whether or not Washington D.C. should have the power or if states should have the power."
Most Republicans, though, agreed that the patient should have the ultimate role in such decision making.
Cassidy said a plan he, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., favors sending money to the states to allow governors to be in charge of healthcare issues on a state level.
If last week's vote on a "skinny" repeal bill had passed, that plan may have been put in place, said Cassidy, as if the vote had happened, then lawmakers could have gone into conference and laid the plan over the repeal legislation.
It's important to keep working on legislation, however, he said, and he thinks there will be results.
"Think about the family sitting round the kitchen table who cannot afford their premiums," said Cassidy. "One couple that I know, their annual premiums were $39,000 for one year. We're here to provide solutions. I am going to continue to work for that family."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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