Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's health care bill is a disaster and it proves the vast majority of Republicans are comfortable with tinkering with ObamaCare and not repealing it.
The bill will keep some taxes and it provides a $200 billion bailout for insurance companies making the Republican Party the party of taxes and bailouts.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has surfaced as the leading critic of the bill. Paul is critical of the taxes and the insurance company bailout and is pointing out the bill does not end the death spiral but subsidizes it.
Paul is trying to address the death spiral issue caused by individual plans by allowing individuals to associate in groups which would give the bigger pool of individuals lower insurance rates.
An idea by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) that would allow insurance companies to offer a number of different health plans in addition to the regulated ObamaCare plan is meeting resistance from insurance companies.
According to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would increase the premium of an individual benchmark plan by 20 percent in 2018.
Taxes, bailouts, and higher premiums will become the Republican brand which will likely have dire consequences for the party during the 2018 midterm elections.
