WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is citing the reality that President Donald Trump will sign a repeal of the Affordable Care Act into law as one of the reasons why she won’t vote now for its elimination without a replacement plan.
“I’m doing what I think is right and responsible and I’m going to continue to do that,” Capito said during an appearance on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
A day earlier, Capito attended a White House luncheon with President Donald Trump and the other Republican members of the U.S. Senate in which, she said, Trump pushed for a health care law repeal with a replacement.
I’m glad @POTUS agrees that we cannot move to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses the needs of West Virginians.
— Shelley Moore Capito (@SenCapito) July 19, 2017
Earlier this week, President Trump was calling for a straight repeal for parts of the health care law with a transition period lasting two years and, at a different time, pledging to “let Obamacare fail.”
Capito’s stand against repeal alone is a reversal of a Dec. 2015 vote she cast under President Barack Obama for repeal of ACA, also known as Obamacare, without replacement when a veto was certain.
She maintained she has been consistent in calling for ACA repeal with replacement.
“I don’t think that it’s a responsible way to repeal something, have everything fall off a cliff in two years, have more people uninsured, have no plan in front of us,” Capito said.
“I want to see the plan in front of us.”
If approved, a repeal would end ACA mandates for people to have insurance immediately while cutting off federal subsidies to help people pay for coverage effective in 2020.
“I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians,” Capito previously said.
The Senate’s latest version of the health care bill scaled back federal insurance regulations, cut funding for traditional Medicaid and phased out the Medicaid expansion.
On Wednesday night, Capito was part of a private meeting with other U.S. Senators focused on the health care bill which appeared stalled as of a few hours earlier.
“We’ve got to iron this out, so having us all in the room without staff, I think we made progress,” Capito reported. “We’re trying to find that sweet spot and it means we’re still working on it.”
Capito did note the repeal “vehicle” could change during negotiations and she was not fully ruling out a revisiting of the issue if changes were made.
Straight repeal, though, she argued, was not the answer.
“Quite frankly, I don’t think the U.S. Congress does too well with deadlines. When we say we’ve got something and we’ve got to fix it in two years, we get up against a four month period.”
In Capito’s view, that is not when good policy is developed.
A new website from the Club For Growth, ObamacareRepealTraitors.com, labeled Capito, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) as “traitors” for not supporting repeal after previously doing so.
Both West Virginians For Life and the Family Policy Council of West Virginia criticized Capito in a Thursday statement.
“She made promises as a senatorial candidate and our organizations endorsed her and then West Virginia voters gave their support to her and other Republicans in part because of their opposition to ObamaCare,” said West Virginians for Life President Wanda Franz.
“Her failure to support repeal would be an abandonment of those voters.”
Allen Whitt, president of the Family Policy Council, agreed.
“If Senator Capito is unwilling to protect the most vulnerable among us and fails to defund Planned Parenthood when the outcome for the whole nation is in her hands, then all options must be on the table when her senate primary race comes around,” Whitt said.
Capito was asked about that opposition on “Talkline.”
“People are allowed to express their disappointment with me,” she said. “I have to look at this where I think what is right and good for West Virginia.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he’ll schedule a vote to proceed on changes to the health care law next week.
A report from the Congressional Budget Office projected 32 million more Americans would be uninsured within ten years and health insurance premiums could double if the ACA repeal is approved without a replacement.