By Greg Halbleib
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D, Ill.) worries that Republicans may repeal Obamacare without putting an alternative in place.
Durbin said the GOP has been opposing Obamacare for six years without suggesting something else.
“Their better alternative should have emerged. It has not,” Durbin told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin. “The reason is, this is hard work. It’s easy enough to oppose something, but to come up with an alternative that affects so many people across America is not an easy lift.”
Durbin said about 10 percent of Illinois’ population has health insurance because of Obamacare. He added the plan protects everyone with health insurance by prohibiting discrimination for pre-existing conditions and eliminating caps on coverage, among other provisions.
Durbin said it’s up to those in Washington to improve Obamacare.
“I hear from Republicans, ‘Tell you what we’re going to do–we’re going to take this problem in Washington and send it back to the states to manage. We’ll let the states use their Medicaid funds to figure out how to take care of this,'” Durbin said. “Now do you think for a minute in Springfield where they don’t have a budget and aren’t paying the state’s bills that they can be entrusted with that responsibility?”
Durbin suggested the first place to look for ways to reduce health care costs is the price of drugs. He said hedge fund managers are investing in pharmaceutical companies with an emphasis on profit.
“I can’t believe that we’re ignoring the reality that the cost of drugs has gone up exponentially over the last several years,” Durbin said. “They’re doubling, tripling and even more the prices of things that have been on the market for years. They’re not new discoveries. There’s real exploitation. That’s one way to bring down the overall health cost and the cost of insurance.”
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
