{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/sen-jeff-merkley-on-republicans-efforts-to-repeal-and-delay", "Sen. Jeff Merkley on Republicans' efforts to repeal and delay", "2016-12-05", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Jeff Merkley", "M001176", "www.merkley.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Sen. Jeff Merkley on Republicans' efforts to repeal and delay \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMonday, December 5, 2016\r\n\r\n\t\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  \r\n    By:\u00a0\r\n    Elizabeth Hayes\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSen.\u00a0Jeff Merkley, the junior Democrat from Oregon, takes a dim view of his Republican colleagues' strategy to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act \u2014 but delay the effective date.\r\nRepublicans don't want the \"the millions hurt by repeal to be hurt before the next election, so they push it beyond that,\" Merkley said in a sit-down interview with the Business Journal at his Washington, D.C. Senate office.\r\n\"That way, they can fulfill their promise to their base, but not actually do it for several years, so they don\u2019t suffer a big backlash in the next election. When people are afraid of how citizens will react, it tells you millions of people will be hurt.\"\r\nPresident-elect\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0repeatedly promised to repeal Obamacare, something Republicans in Congress tried dozens of times to no avail with\u00a0President Obama\u00a0in office. Now Republicans plan to proceed shortly after inauguration day, using budget reconciliation. That way, they could revoke parts of the health law with a simple majority, thus avoiding a Senate filibuster.\r\nMore than 20 million Americans have gained coverage under the ACA, mostly through the Medicaid expansion and the rest through the health exchanges. In Oregon, more than 400,000 people were added to the Medicaid roles, while another 135,000 signed up for commercial plans via the exchange. The uninsured rate dropped to about 5 percent from 14 percent before the ACA, making Oregon \u201cone of the most successful states in the country,\u201d Merkley noted.\r\nStill, the law has experienced major bumps, as private insurers have exited the health exchanges, in Oregon and around the country,\u00a0and rates have increased by double digits.\u00a0Premium tax credits, however, have insulated most consumers who buy their own insurance, including 95,000 Oregonians.\r\nMerkley worries that if Congress passes a repeal early next year but it doesn\u2019t take effect for three years, the uncertainty could lead to more insurers bailing out of the exchange. He also expressed concern about the future of Medicare. Rep. Tom Price, a Georgia Republican who is Trump\u2019s pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, supports privatizing Medicare by converting it into a voucher program.\r\n\u201cSeniors of modest means soon wouldn\u2019t be able to afford what Medicare current provides. It would be breaking a promise. It\u2019s been a central promise of the working social contract in America, which is under assault,\u201d Merkley said.\r\nDuring his town hall meetings all over Oregon, constituents decried the ACA as a \u201cgovernment takeover\u201d of health care. But once he broke it down, they would voice support for various aspects of the law, including the exchange marketplace, consumer protection rules on pre-existing conditions and premium support, he said.\r\n\u201cThe families it helped tremendously are rural families that didn\u2019t have access to health care before,\u201d Merkley said. \u201cThis is traditional red territory, so it\u2019s not a program that benefited blue families but not red. It\u2019s been tremendously powerful in rural areas, including the funding for rural health clinics.\u201d\r\nMerkley, the only senator who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019 presidential bid, co-sponsored a resolution with the Vermont Independent and several Democratic senators that would have created a public option, or Medicare-like insurance plan.\r\nThat effort, which began in September, now looks to be dead in the water.\r\n\"A public option would be very helpful for driving down the cost of health care, but at this point, that's not shared by the majority of the House and Senate,\" Merkley said.\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n           \r\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/sen-jeff-merkley-on-republicans-efforts-to-repeal-and-delay"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7700670976191759, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}