Mainer of the Year

In exchange for her support for the GOP tax bill that would kill Obamacare’s individual mandate, Sen. Susan Collins first said three separate health care measures to support Obamacare and protect Medicare recipients be passed.

Next, she amended her demand, saying the bills had to pass before the tax bill came back from the House-Senate conference committee, which didn’t happen. Then, she insisted — after voting for the tax bill — that the policies pass by the end of 2017. When the strong opposition from House conservatives against her legislation became clear, she expressed confidence they would become law in January.

Now, in an interview with Inside Health Policy, Collins said she hopes the policies she proposed will pass and be implemented before 2019, when the repeal of the individual mandate is expected to shrink the individual insurance market by several million people and drive up premiums by at least 10 percent.

Do you kind of get the feeling that Collins knew that her legislative demands were DOA and used them as cover to vote for the tax bill? Maybe she just hopes all this will disappear in the fog of Washington, D.C.

If her actions Collins was named Mainer of the Year (“2017 Mainers of the Year,” Dec. 31), then the bar is set so low it is an insult to the other finalists.

Michael Grove

Belgrade