Obamacare will not be allowed to merely fail, as President Donald Trump called Tuesday to allow to happen, but instead will continue to provide insurance for millions of Americans, Sen. Tim Kaine insisted Wednesday while conceding improvements are necessary.
"It's providing insurance for millions of people who have never had it before," the Virginia Democrat and 2016 vice presidential nominee told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"Bankruptcies are cut in half. People with pre-existing conditions are protected."
However, improvements must be made, and Kaine said as a member of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee, he wrote a letter in January to Republicans asking that the matter of healthcare be brought up in committee and promising to help improve Obamacare.
Kaine said he hopes Senate Republicans listen to the American people, and that their efforts to repeal Obamacare will fail.
Meanwhile, Trump's call to allow Obamacare to fail is troubling, the senator said.
"He'll feel good if millions of people get hurt?" said Kaine. "That's outrageous. We won't let him sabotage our healthcare system. We have to work on it in a bipartisan way to make it better."
Kaine noted that Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is a former governor who understands Medicaid, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is a doctor. Another committee member, Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., also is a former governor who has a disabled child.
However, with all that experience, he said, the committee process is not being used, and the reason the measure to repeal and replace has failed is because of the American people.
"You cannot threaten people's healthcare and expect them to go quietly," said Kaine. "A mother of a disabled child told me about a week ago, when I was having a roundtable meeting in Virginia [that] picked the wrong group of people to fight with."
The woman told him that parents like her fight the system from the beginning when their children are born, and they won't let Medicaid be slashed without a fight.
"They badly miscalculated when they went after the Medicaid program, which is for kids, folks with disabilities, and seniors," said Kaine.
Kaine also said he believes the Trump White House has "gotten sloppy" and think people will buy what he says, no matter what it is.
"This is a president who said everybody is going to be covered," said Kaine. "[He said] nobody is going to pay more. I'll protect you if you have a pre-existing condition and won't cut Medicaid."
But when promises are made and shattered about healthcare, people will remember that, said Kaine, and they will strike back.
Kaine said he does believe Democrats and Republicans can come to an agreement, if they work together, as he and many other colleagues have ideas for lowering costs.
The senator also said Wednesday he is troubled by reports that Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for an hour during the G-20 summit with only a Russian translator present.
"Last week, we heard we're going to hear everything. . . seems there's always another shoe to drop," said Kaine.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.