I read with interest Sen. Susan Collins’ explanation in the April 8 Maine Sunday Telegram (“Health insurance rate increases were avoidable“) of who bears responsibility for the impending increases in health insurance premiums. In her estimation, the blame lies with Democrats who wanted to relitigate the Hyde Amendment at the eleventh hour of budget negotiations.
This explanation ignores several truths. Sen. Collins turned her back on her own commitment to get the necessary health care fixes in place before a vote on the tax legislation. She squandered the political leverage she diligently amassed over all these years for empty promises from Republican leadership. What she is left with now is justifying her vote on tax “reform” and blaming others for the failure to make necessary improvements to the Affordable Care Act.
In the end this debacle rests squarely at the feet of the Republican Party. Its implacable opposition to the ACA blocked all reasonable efforts over many years either to improve it or replace it with a more effective approach, which was always promised but never forthcoming. While Sen. Collins’ role in bipartisan efforts to address some of the issues may be laudable, when it counted most, she toed her party line. You cannot claim to be a moderate or a leader, as she so often is described, when you behave this way.
What is galling is the self-serving tone of this narrative; what is sad is that millions of people, including her own constituents, will be devastated by both the premium increases and the impacts of the tax legislation when those chickens come home to roost, which they inevitably will.
Paula Valente
South Portland
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