Dave Reichert: ‘We missed the boat’ on health care

The latest GOP effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) failed to pass Monday. But would it have had a better shot months ago? According to Washington State Representative Dave Reichert, Congress missed an opportunity to find a bipartisan path forward.

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“I’ll just be honest with you here,” Reichert told Seattle’s Morning News. “I think we really missed the boat in January as Congress should’ve come together then. Because both parties recognize the weaknesses in Obamacare. We had an opportunity to come together … find a way forward. But as I’ve seen in my short time here – relatively short, compared to others – is that when one party or the other takes the White House and both houses in Congress, they feel like they have a mandate, and then they go off to the right or they go off to the left.”

Rep. Reichert, a Republican, said that this mentality can be counterproductive for the majority of Americans who he believes want to stay in the middle on this issue. GOP leadership may have harmed their chances early on by staking out a far-right position on an Obamacare replacement. While critics would argue a bipartisan approach to health care should have started years ago, rather than months, Democrats now have arguably less incentive to make compromises with Republicans knowing the GOP hasn’t been able to secure the votes for their version of the bill.

“[The American people] want to figure this out, they want a resolution, they want a solution,” Reichert said. “And that’s where I’ve been working, in the middle, trying to find answers to find a better health care system for people. This isn’t about repealing or replacing or keeping Obamacare. It’s trying to find a way forward to make sure people have certainty about what their health care is going to be, for crying out loud.”

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to call for another health care vote next week. Rep. Reichert was one of 20 Republicans who voted against the Republican health care bill in the House, according to The Seattle Times. He cited concerns for the bill’s $800 billion cut to Medicaid. He remains undecided on a repeal-and-replace plan.

“I’m going to wait and see what the Senate comes out with on their side,” Reichert said. “The ball is in their court, the bill has moved over, and I think hopefully people take a look and see what’s happening here is that this is not the easiest problem to solve. The fact that the House struggled over it for so long, and now the Senate is having a problem, I think is a reflection of how difficult this really is.”