WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito shares President Trump’s pledge that transitioning away from the Affordable Care Act shouldn’t leave some Americans covered.
During his address to a joint session of Congress last week, Trump prioritized developing a process to fix the financial problems facing ObamaCare without costing citizens their insurance coverage.
The shift is an important point to West Virginia and one Capito has been actively working to preserve in her discussions about whatever plan comes out.
“Something I’ve been talking about a lot is 180,000 West Virginians on expanded Medicaid,” Capito told MetroNews Talkline. “I have no interest in leaving these folks in the cold and want to make sure they get coverage and that came through. ”
Capito has been a part of discussions with leaders in the U.S. House where that replacement legislation is being formulated.
Hardcore opponents of ObamaCare would like to see the slate wiped clean with a repeal, but Capito cautioned that Congressional procedure won’t be that simple.
“It will be a repeal, but can we repeal everything in it? No. Can you replace everything in it? No.” she said. “It will have some repair issues rather than total repeal.”
It’s unclear what the final product will look like once the bill works its way through the Congress. Capito was encouraged by the President’s words and believed the finished product will be better than what was originally implemented.
“What we realize, and I think the people who constructed ObamaCare realized too late is for every push, there’s a pull. If you’re going to have universal coverage, you’re going to have people lose their coverage. The President’s statement, ‘If you like your healthcare, you can keep it’, that didn’t work,” she said. “We’re in the process now of looking at all of those pushes and pulls.”