So, Sen. Grassley, what is going to replace Obamacare?

When I’m due to write a column, I often have trouble deciding which policy or event to respond to, especially since November’s election. But the obvious answer after I opened last week’s paper was health care.

Thank you for that, Sen. Charles Grassley.

Sen. Grassley’s May 15 address in the Senate conveniently leaves out the crucial detail of what replaces Obamacare.

Tear it down; repeal it, he says. Yet I quote, “And every day that goes by without a bipartisan solution to fix the flaws, Obamacare is moving the American people closer to calamity.”

He said it. Obamacare can be fixed – with bipartisan effort. So why hasn’t this happened?

Absent from Sen. Grassley’s speech was any mention of Republicans’ work in crafting Obamacare.

From its beginnings, contrary to GOP rhetoric, Republicans helped shape the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

Consider a public option? It was scuttled by the GOP as “Socialism.” Meanwhile, we Americans love our Social Security, Medicare, and Veterans’ Administration programs -- which are socialist systems.

Include a mandate to ensure a diverse pool of new insureds? We couldn’t do that because, “Freedom!” Meanwhile, you can’t drive a car in most states without proof of auto insurance because it’s mandated.

With every step taken to create the Affordable Care Act, Republicans worked to sabotage it. And Sen. Grassley was one of the leading saboteurs. Pledging to work with President Obama in Washington, I witnessed Grassley’s about-face here in Iowa at a 2009 town hall in Afton. Instead of advocating for benefits to help Iowans, Grassley flamed fears with talk of death panels.

The attacks have continued via a series of lawsuits and congressional efforts to kill the program by scuttling funding. The current crisis is related to federal funding to help equalize insurers’ losses during the transition years into the program. Called the risk-corridor provision, Sen. Marco Rubio led a successful effort to limit this funding.

As Robert Pear of the New York Times reported on Dec. 9, 2015, “The risk corridors were intended to help some insurance companies if they ended up with too many new sick people on their roles and too little cash from premiums to cover their medical bills in the first three years under the health law. But because of Mr. Rubio’s efforts, the administration says it will only pay 13 percent of what insurance companies were expecting to receive this year.”

That’s why insurance premiums keep increasing. And it’s only one way Republicans have worked to break a policy designed to help people.

Additionally, the nature of our for-profit health system with an insurance middle-man creates unnecessary costs.

Dr. Cathleen London wrote about her experiences providing care in rural Maine in the Nov. 28, 2016 Press Herald, in addition to her experience as an employer and an insured person.

“Something is wrong with the system. In one day, I encountered everything wrong with insurance. I am not trying to scam the system. I am literally trying to survive. I am trying to give care in an underserved area.

“This is not the fault of Obamacare, which stopped the most egregious problems with insurance companies. Remember lifetime caps? Remember denials for pre-existing conditions? Remember the retroactive cancellation of insurance policies? Returning to that is not an option.”

So, Sen. Grassley, you can talk about repeal. But that talk’s cheap until you provide either a replacement or the fixes for Obamacare. Because you said it yourself. It can be fixed if you’ll find the political will.

Cherie Miner is a local parent, community volunteer, freelance writer and artist. In a former life, she was a corporate writer and public relations professional. Contact her at news@redoakexpress.com or on Facebook.