John Kasich Claims President Trump Is ‘Very Open To Compromise’ On Healthcare

Ohio Governor and former Presidential candidate John Kasich recently spoke with Meet The Press where he made sure to mention that President Donald Trump is open to compromise regarding healthcare, which may make things interesting yet again in Congress. Ever since the House Republicans put out their new idea for healthcare in the American Health Care Act, many people have been talking about the highs and lows of the bill. However, both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have made sure to mention that things were open to negotiation despite putting their endorsement on the bill itself.

Republicans are actively working to try and replace Obamacare with what they feel will be a better healthcare law that will not only create competition but lower costs all around for Americans. Their hope is that more people will be on healthcare when their bill compared to Obamacare. However, this will only happen if premiums lessen and deductibles lower as well. Otherwise, Republicans would have created a bill that would risk having fewer people insured than before.

This would not be a good thing for the Republicans, as insurance companies won’t want to stay lower on costs if people don’t buy plans. Thus there would be a back and forth between Americans and insurance companies on prices being higher and lower to make sure people buy. It could create a huge cluster of major issues, which is obviously something the Republicans want to avoid before things ever get started.

The worries regarding the bill are pretty significant for House Democrats as well as members of the Senate. However, the Democrats are not the only people on the outs on this, as there are several House Republicans that are heavily against the new law as well. Possibly the most prominent is Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who has been calling the new bill “Obamacare-lite.” He believes it does not drift enough from Obamacare. With all this said, negotiations are ongoing.

John Kasich told NBC’s Meet The Press that he does support the bill but added that President Trump is very open to compromise on it. Kasich mentioned that it would be best for both Republicans and Democrats to work on improving healthcare together. This would most likely be a good plan, and if both sides could agree then it would surely be for the good of the nation. So Kasich’s idea of both sides coming together is good, if it can be done. He said the following.

“When you jam something through one party over another, it’s not sustainable.”

He mentioned that Trump was someone that could be worked with regarding healthcare, telling Meet the Press that Trump is “very open to compromise. He’s told me that. I have no doubt he’d be flexible,” but he claimed that “we need to have Democrats involved.” The Ohio Governor is asking for both parties to unite over an issue both sides want to take care of, healthcare. Congress cannot leave anyone out or be too liberal or conservative on the bill for both parties to be happy with it.

Therein is the problem. Both sides will have people who want to make it more left or right, rather than center it where both sides have what they feel is needed inside the bill. Kasich is someone who is seemingly very open to working with Democrats, and even took advantage of the Medicaid expansion in his state that Obamacare provided each and every state. This did create a problem with his fellow Republicans, but the people of Ohio were obviously happy he added it.

Governor Kasich wrote an article for the New York Times, where he argued this same point in that both parties should come together, and added that phasing out Medicaid expansion would put people at risk, writing the following.

“We’re talking about lives. We better be careful we’re not losing the soul of our country because we’re playing politics.”

He would go on to say that he believes “political parties in this country are disintegrating in front of our eyes.” He may be onto something, as there have been shifts in the policies of Republicans and Democrats before. In fact, back in 1950, more of today’s Republicans might find themselves siding with Democrats more than their fellow Republicans. Shifts do occur, but is unlikely that the party system will stop, despite a need for it to be removed for most Americans.

Kasich believes that the House of Representatives will eventually pass the bill through, but he believes once the bill gets to the Senate, things may end up getting pushed back, saying,”that’s where they are going to have to make improvements.” He would later admit that the bill needs fixing but putting something in to replace Obamacare is important due to the fact that Americans need a healthcare bill to be more helpful, claiming…

“The bill needs fixed. The current system doesn’t work. You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

In an interesting note, John Kasich met with President Trump along with his top advisers at the White House where the talk was on healthcare. At the time, it seemed that the President was very responsive to his concerns about Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion. Kasich’s adviser would later tell NBC News that when Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner reminded President Trump that he was in favor of what was in the House plan, Trump responded in saying “I like this plan better.”

We very well could see an interesting shift with healthcare in Washington, D.C in the coming months with both Republicans and Democrats trying to make sure their voice is heard with this bill. While the House is controlled by the Republicans and will likely make the bill dominantly right, if the Senate does send it down for changes, then we very well could see them work with Democrats to ensure the bill not only passes through the Senate but satisfies President Trump enough to make it into a law.

[Featured Image by Matt Rourke/AP Images]