State rep. Greg Davids calls Obamacare “biggest failure in history,” can’t repeal fast enough

Minnesota senators did recently vote for
legislation to help those who struggling to pay.

Repeal and replace can’t come soon enough for Minnesota critics of the federal Affordable Care ACt.  

None has been more vocal than state rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston). While he can’t wait for the whole law to go away, in the meantime, he’s pushing hard on reforms to fix what can be fixed on the MNSure state health exchange marketplace.

“Obamacare is the biggest failure in history,” Davids said. “We don’t make some of these reforms, there will not be a market in 2018 for healthcare for anybody.”

Right now, Davids’ party and Democrats are at odds about how to deal with premium increases on the individual marketplace that exceed 60 percent in some cases.  

Late last week, senators passed legislation 35-31 to help. Part of the bill will distribute $285 million to those struggling to afford insurance, while another $15 million was given to insurance carriers to help cover people with life-threatening or long-term health conditions.

“This is unprecedented that we’re passing legislation this early,” Sen. Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) said, “but we want to show folks we’re here to get things done and that we can get things done.”

While lawmakers are just starting a new session, this issue has been discussed for months.

Though premiums are increasing in the state, the numbers enrolling in MNSure have hit new highs.