BUDGET/GOP/HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA): “Republican senators are confronting a political challenge that is increasingly hard to ignore as they engage with voters during the July Fourth recess: Under their health-care overhaul, average premiums for a midlevel insurance plan would jump by 20% next January.
That means many people who don’t get insurance through work would see their premiums increase just a few months before the midterm elections, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Premiums would fall in later years, in part because less-comprehensive plans would be offered by that time.
This highlights what some Republicans privately concede is a Catch-22 as GOP Senate leaders work to assemble a bill they can bring to the floor when Congress returns to Washington: Both passing a bill and not passing one carry political peril.
Yet Republicans’ plight does resemble that of the Democrats seven years ago in many ways. Democrats were similarly caught between passing an unpopular bill not long before a new president’s first midterm elections, or failing to honor a longtime promise after seizing control of Congress and the White House.”
-Stephanie Armour and Kristina Peterson, “GOP Senators Weigh Higher Health Premiums’ Possible Effect on Midterms,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 4, 2017 04:33pm