Sen. Bernie Sanders: Lamar Alexander should 'end backroom deals' on health care

Michael Collins | Nashville Tennessean

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WASHINGTON — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called Friday on Sen. Lamar Alexander to “end backroom deals” and “begin the national discussion” on health care.

In a letter to Alexander, the former Democratic presidential candidate said the GOP proposal to dismantle much of the Affordable Care Act is a “disaster” and that it’s time for a serious discussion about the legislation instead of rushing it through Congress.

“Instead of holding backroom meetings, Sen. (Mitch) McConnell, you and the Republican leadership must allow bipartisan discussion as to how we improve the Affordable Care Act, not destroy it,” Sanders wrote to the Tennessee Republican.

“I urge you to open up the process and allow the voices of more than just Republicans in the Senate to be heard,” Sanders said.

Alexander is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees health care issues. Sanders is a member of the committee.

Alexander was one of a small group of GOP senators who helped craft the Republican bill that seeks to repeal and replace many of the health care reforms put in place under former President Barack Obama.

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McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, abandoned plans to put the bill to a vote this week because he didn’t have enough votes among his own GOP members to advance the legislation to the floor.

Conservatives complained that the bill does not go far enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Moderates feared it would hurt their constituents by throwing too many people off Medicaid.

Republicans are revising the bill in hopes of winning over enough senators to put the bill to a vote after Congress returns from the Fourth of July holiday.

In his letter to Alexander, Sanders repeated a complaint by Democrats — and even some Republicans — that the bill was drafted in secret and was being rushed through Congress without proper debate.

“Let’s begin the national discussion,” he said. “Let’s have hearings. Let’s end backroom deals.”

Alexander's office pushed back against Sanders' remarks.

"Senator Sanders should have sent his letter to himself," said Alexander's spokeswoman, Ashton Davies. "This is a budget committee bill, and Senator Sanders is the senior Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, the same Senate Budget Committee that completed enacting Obamacare in 2010 when Democrats were in charge."

Because the legislation was handled as a budget matter, "neither this Senate bill nor the House health care bill could be referred to Senator Alexander’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee," Davies said.

Davies noted that Alexander helped enact bipartisan education reform legislation that Obama called "a Christmas miracle" and that last year the Tennessee senator led the push for a bipartisan bill that provided billions of dollars for medical research. McConnell called that legislation "the most important law of the last Congress."

In February, Alexander's committee did hold a hearing on collapsing insurance markets, Davies said. Committee records show Sanders did not attend that hearing, she said.

Reach Michael Collins at mcollins2@gannett.com or 703-854-8927 and on Twitter at @mcollinsNEWS.