It's been just one week since Washington's big primary election, and ballot counting is almost complete.
However, the campaigning ahead of the November election has already begun, especially in Washington's 8th Congressional District where Republican Dino Rossi will face Democrat Dr. Kim Schrier in the fall.
One day after the race was officially called, the Republican National Committee came out questioning what they call Schrier’s “pricey promise of government-run health care.”
“The bad news for Schrier is that she’ll be carrying the burden of supporting a $32 trillion health care plan that would almost certainly require massive tax hikes,” RNC press secretary Patrick McCann emailed reporters in a statement Tuesday.
The claim links to an article about the Senator Bernie Sanders backed Medicare-for-All bill, as well as cost analysis from research groups, including the liberal-leaning Urban Institute which found that federal expenditures would increase by $32 trillion, over a ten-year period.
Republican Dino Rossi also alluded to the estimated $32 trillion plan during his election night speech last week, indicating that the health care plan will be a central attack in the months ahead.
However, Schrier, a pediatrician from Issaquah, has not expressed blanket support of the Medicare-for-All bill in its current form.
“I am committed to moving us toward a Medicare for All system,” Schrier’s campaign website reads.
“But we cannot simply wait for a Democratic president and Democratic majorities in Congress to pass a bill that will take years to implement.”
Instead, she’s proposed what she calls an interim plan that would allow people to buy into Medicare on their state’s health exchange, on a sliding scale based on ability to pay. Her website lays out the goals of the plan, created in consultation with former Obama administration Health and Human Services staffers.
“There is work to be done that can start right away to stabilize the market price, to bring down the cost, to bring down the premiums, to expand Medicare to anyone who wants to buy into it, with a sliding scale fee..if you're asking how we'll pay for it…with subsidies who cannot afford,” said Schrier earlier this month during the final forum between Democratic candidates.
Attorney Jason Rittereiser, who finished third in the primary, was the only candidate to express support for the Medicare-for-All bill, HR 676, in its current form.
Meanwhile, Dr. Schrier’s proposal does not include a cost analysis. However, her campaign says it would require people to continuing paying premiums to buy into the public option, whereas HR 676 eliminates premiums.
Republican Dino Rossi campaigned in 2010, in his bid for U.S. Senate, on replacing the Affordable Care Act with a more free-market solution.
His current campaign’s website advocates “reducing health care mandates” and offering tax incentives for small businesses that provide health insurance for their employees.
The Republican tax bill passed last year repealed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, considered a key provision in stabilizing the individual health care market.
