Despite his effort to be out front on health care issues, physician and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy was not made part of the Senate group tasked with helping craft a Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
USA Today reports the 13-member working group includes Republican leaders, committee chairmen and some conservative senators. The Senate effort comes in the wake of the House narrowly passing a GOP bill last week aimed at repealing and replacing the 2010 health care law.
With debate shifting to the Senate, Cassidy has stepped up efforts to tout a bill he and fellow Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine  introduced earlier this year. The Patient Freedom Act of 2017 was one of the first repeal measures this Congress.
Cassidy says President Donald Trump pledged during his campaign to support legislation that provides health care coverage, protects people with pre-existing conditions, gets rid of the individual mandate and lowers premiums.
“The only way to get there is through the Cassidy/Collins plan so if we’re serious about that pledge then it doesn’t matter whether I’m on the (working group) or not,” says Cassidy, who worked for decades in Louisiana’s charity hospital system.
Pearson Cross, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette political scientist, says he thinks Cassidy will play a role in helping craft GOP health care legislation in the Senate.
“Cassidy has reach across the aisle,” Cross says. “On this issue he has shown some sensitivity on health care so I mean they’ve got to have him. He’s the go-to guy on this issue, I think.”
