Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said on Sunday that a hypothetical commitment from Republicans to hold a vote by the end of the year on extending health care subsidies would not be sufficient to secure Democratic support for the GOP proposal to reopen the government.
Kelly, in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” called for a “real negotiation” and solution to the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that are expected to increase health insurance premiums for millions of Americans.
“Not right now, no,” Kelly said, when asked whether he would support a deal that secures a GOP commitment to holding a vote on the subsidies by the end of the year in exchange for Democrats’ support for their funding proposal.
“We need a real negotiation and we need a fix. We need this corrected for the American people,” rather than having “some vote without an assured outcome,” he said.
“For so many people, their health care is running toward a cliff, and if we don’t fix this, it’s going to go right over it,” he added.
Kelly suggested that it wouldn’t be difficult to solve the issue as long as all players sit down in a room together for a legitimate negotiation.
“Now, here’s the thing: The president has indicated that he wants to do something about this. And he wants the government open,” Kelly said. “Well, we want this fixed, and we want the government open. So why is there a problem here?”
“And all this is going to take is putting everybody in the room for an extended period of time and coming up to some reasonable conclusion. This isn’t one of these cases where you have people that want different outcomes. The president has said he is interested in extending these subsidies.”
