After weeks of indecision, U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin declared Thursday that he will support a health care measure that would repeal key elements of the Affordable Care Act.
Poliquin, a two-term Republican from the 2nd District, rushed back to the Capitol early in the day less than 48 hours after his father suffered a stroke at his home in Maine.
Poliquin said in a prepared statement that “ObamaCare is failing” so Congress “must work to fix this dire situation.”
He acknowledged the House bill has flaws and said he expects the Senate “to make further changes” that he would welcome.
By approving the proposal pushed by President Donald Trump and House Republican leaders, Poliquin said, the GOP-controlled House “simply moves this issue on to the Senate.”
Many eyes have been on Poliquin in recent days. The Boston Globe said that “if the bill passes the House, it will probably be because” Poliquin voted for it.
That’s how closely divided the House is.
Maine’s other member of Congress, Democrat Chellie Pingree, had no hesitation opposing the bill.
She said in a prepared statement it “spells trouble for all Americans” and “will deny 133 million people with pre-existing conditions access to affordable coverage,”
It will also cost 24 million people their insurance, she said, while charging older Mainers up to five times more than younger one — “all while giving a huge tax cut to the top 400 earners in the U.S., including President Trump.”
The impact of the proposal is uncertain. Legislators didn’t even wait to find out what the Congressional Budget Office would say about what it might do if approved.
Poliquin said, “There are powerful special interest groups in Augusta and Washington trying to scare us into doing nothing. They say if we change the imploding ObamaCare law, millions of Americans will lose their health insurance.”
That is also what the CBO said about an earlier version of the bill. It predicted there would be 24 million fewer Americans covered by health insurance by 2026 if the Republican plan is approved.
“Republicans have long said that they are the party of fiscal responsibility,” Pingree said, but taxpayers don’t even know what the change will cost.
Poliquin pointed out that “Maine is in a unique position” in the healthcare debate because its reforms “have become the core model of this new healthcare legislation, which includes some of Maine’s models for welfare reforms as well.”
He said he agreed to back the measure “with bipartisan Maine reforms at the center of this new bill, and with Maine having ensured essential health benefits and pre-existing conditions are covered under state laws.”
“I have studied this healthcare issue carefully with one thing in mind: the people of Maine. I do not work for the Democrats, Republicans, or Washington bosses,” the congressman said. “I work only for the People of Maine and my focus has been solely on the Maine people.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin administers the House oath of office to Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, during a mock swearing in ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017.
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