OLYMPIA — Two of the state’s top Democrats are asking its most powerful congressional Republican not to try ending Obamacare.
Gov. Jay Inslee and Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler wrote in a letter Thursday to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers that ending the Affordable Care Act, as it also is known, would result in the loss of health care coverage and financial hardship for hundreds of thousands of state residents. It also could destabilize the state’s health insurance market and hurt the state budget and economy.
McMorris Rodgers voted against the act when it passed Congress in 2010, and has voted for repeated efforts by Republicans to repeal it since then. Those proposals, however, had little chance of becoming law because President Obama would have vetoed them.
With Donald Trump set to be inaugurated next month, Republicans are again talking about repealing and replacing the law in the upcoming Congress and Trump has indicated he would sign such a plan if it reaches his desk. McMorris Rodgers has said she and other Republicans support keeping some popular elements of Obamacare, such as provisions that allow adult children to remain on their parents’ plans until age 26, and a ban on companies denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.
