I haven’t followed the Upton Bill very carefully. It seems that it is similar to Obama’s “fix” except that it also allows insurance companies to sell non-Obamacare compliant policies, not just keep them in force (assuming that even is possible, which it probably is not).
The Upton Bill is viewed as a mortal threat by Obamacare defenders (aka Democrats), via The Hill:
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is coming up for a vote on Friday….Under the administrative fix, insurance companies are permitted to continue offering existing plans to current enrollees — regardless of when they signed up for coverage, or if that coverage was recently altered. But unlike the Upton bill, insurance companies can’t offer the bare-bones plans to new enrollees.Democrats have worried that if insurers were allowed to offer the cheaper, lower-quality plans to new customers, the young, healthy individuals central to the success of the ObamaCare exchanges would choose the less expensive options, dooming the reform effort. Moreover, those individuals’ plans would lack the consumer protections central to driving down health costs under the law.“I will not accept proposals that are just another brazen attempt to undermine or repeal the overall law and drag us back into a broken system,” Obama said Thursday.Despite the administration’s veto threat, many Democrats could vote for the legislation, seeking political cover for the midterm elections. Democratic leaders have not yet said whether they’ll whip against the legislation.But Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) told CNN on Thursday she was confident that Democrats would hold rank against the bill.“Tomorrow when that legislation comes on the floor, I’m confident the Democrats are going to stand, as we have, in unity to continue to support fully implementing the Affordable Care Act,” she said.
Obama has threatened a veto of the bill:
The Upton Bill seems to violate the principle that Democrats should own Obamacare completely, and we should do nothing to save Democrats from their own folly, particularly after we were called terrorists, suicide bombers, arsonists and hostage-takers for trying to help just a month ago in the run up to the temporary, partial government scale-back.
On a purely political level, though, let Democrats go on record against it, or let Obama veto it.
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