Miami Republicans vow to fix Obamacare after their party tried to repeal it

Between 2010 and 2017, House Republicans attempted to repeal Obamacare dozens of times through various bills, resolutions and legislative maneuvers to strip the law of federal funding.

But in 2020, Miami’s two high-profile Republican U.S. House candidates say they support a different approach.

With three weeks before Election Day — as President Donald Trump’s poll numbers show him losing ground to Democratic nominee Joe Biden — Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and former TV journalist Maria Elvira Salazar both say they don’t support legislation to undo the Affordable Care Act, a law that provided health insurance to about 200,000 of their potential constituents throughout Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys.

“I never said that I was against Obamacare. I said I think there are aspects of it that were good but obviously it needs a lot of fixing,” Gimenez said in an interview on Monday. “I wouldn’t repeal it. I would fix it.”

Gimenez is running against incumbent Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat, who supports the ACA.

And Salazar, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, recently used the phrase, “If you like your Obamacare, you can keep it,” during a TV interview and did so again in an interview with the Miami Herald editorial board on Tuesday. Shalala supports Obamacare.

“Eliminating without giving something in exchange? It’s impossible,” Salazar said. “We’ve got to work on finding something better.”

Their Obamacare stances come as President Donald Trump has offered vague promises to protect people with pre-existing conditions, one of the central points of Obamacare, while lowering healthcare costs.

“Republicans will be providing far better Healthcare than the Democrats, at a far lower cost...And will always protect people with pre-existing conditions!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. Trump hasn’t offered an Obamacare replacement plan if the law is repealed and is fighting the law’s individual mandate, a requirement that most U.S. citizens must have health insurance.

But Gimenez and Salazar are trying to win elections in Democratic-leaning seats with some of the highest Obamacare enrollment numbers in the entire country.

Republicans held both seats until 2018 and are trying to flip them again this year, though Gimenez is considered a more competitive candidate due to the 26th District’s demographics that are more GOP-friendly and his high name recognition as county mayor.

Recent polling in Florida shows that about 15% of Florida voters rate healthcare as their single most important voting issue and Trump generally performs poorly with that group of voters. In 2018, Republicans around the country and in Miami lost seats after Democrats spent millions on TV ads highlighting Republicans’ Obamacare repeal efforts, a play being repeated in 2020.

Democrats have also argued that Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation process — Republicans are trying to confirm her before Election Day — is part of an effort to overturn Obamacare in the courts. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on November 10 in California v. Texas, a case that challenges Obamacare’s individual mandate. Florida is one of 18 states that are challenging the law.

“The big, secretive influences behind this unseemly rush see this nominee as a judicial torpedo they are firing at the [Affordable Care Act],” Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said during Barrett’s confirmation hearing on Monday. During the hearing, Senate Democrats displayed pictures of Obamacare enrollees in their states and used their opening statements to defend the healthcare law.

On Tuesday, Barrett said she could not predetermine how she would rule on the Obamacare court challenge until she hears oral arguments and the facts of the case.

“I am not here on a mission to destroy the Affordable Care Act,” Barrett said.

Gimenez said he supports the court challenge to determine whether Obamacare’s individual mandate is constitutional. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold the mandate but the court’s composition could be far different in 2020 if Barrett is confirmed. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the five votes in favor of upholding the law and Trump could have three of his nominees on the court when they rule on the case.

“The Supreme Court will determine it one way or another,” Gimenez said. “If in fact it’s found to be unconstitutional, it’s out of my hands and we have to fix it. I don’t know if it’s constitutional or not, that’s why we have the Supreme Court. I will be there to fix what we have or craft a law that allows Americans access to good, affordable healthcare.”

But Gimenez acknowledged he doesn’t have a replacement plan. Trump has promised an alternative but hasn’t provided one. Gimenez said that he wants to improve access, lower drug costs and heighten the standards for victims to bring lawsuits against healthcare providers to lower costs.

“I don’t have all the answers on how to fix Obamacare. I frankly don’t think anybody does or else it would be fixed by now,” Gimenez said.

Gimenez is running in Florida’s 26th Congressional District, a seat that stretches from Miami’s western suburbs to Key West. His race against Mucarsel-Powell is considered a toss-up, one of just two seats nationwide where an incumbent Democrat representing a district won by Hillary Clinton is considered vulnerable.

Salazar offered even fewer specifics than Gimenez on her healthcare plan, arguing only that more market-based competition in the healthcare field is good for consumers.

“The law of the land is if you have insurance called Obamacare, they cannot take it away from you,” Salazar said. “I believe that if you like your Obamacare, you can keep it.”

Salazar would not say whether she agrees with the Obamacare lawsuit, saying she hasn’t seen the litigation that began in 2018 when 20 states sued the federal government. Maine and Wisconsin dropped out of the lawsuit after the 2018 elections when their Republican candidates for governor lost.

“I am going to be a member of Congress. I’m not the presidency and I’m not in the courts,” Salazar said. “I have no comment right now because I haven’t seen the lawsuit. Once I’m in Congress and I see all the sides, then I can answer that question intelligently.”

Shalala, Salazar’s opponent and a former Health and Human Services secretary in the Clinton administration, said it was unacceptable that Salazar won’t take a position on the lawsuit. She noted that she had voted to authorize the House of Representatives as party in the lawsuit, meaning members of Congress are technically involved in the litigation.

“The people of South Florida deserve a congresswoman who will defend access to affordable, high-quality healthcare, not someone who refuses to take a stand,” Shalala campaign manager Raul Martinez said in a statement.

Salazar and Shalala are running in Florida’s 27th Congressional District, a seat that includes most of coastal Miami-Dade County. One indicator that Shalala is favored for reelection: outside groups that spend millions on competitive races have spent their money in the Gimenez-Mucarsel-Powell race and not on the Shalala-Salazar race.

Shalala and Mucarsel-Powell are in favor of expanding Obamacare through a public option but are not in favor of Medicare-for-all, a single-payer national health insurance program that would replace private health insurance.

“I support the Affordable Care Act and support expanding on it with a public option to make sure everyone has access,” Mucarsel-Powell said in September. “A public option will increase competition and lower premiums and, of course, people who already have health insurance should always be able to keep it.”

Miami Herald reporter Bianca Padró Ocasio contributed to this report.

This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 6:00 AM.