Cassidy projects optimism on winning bipartisan support for his health care plan

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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he planned to present Republican leadership with his health care plan as soon as Sunday night, predicting that the divisive proposal to put money directly in Americans’ health savings accounts could clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass in the Senate.

“We’re working to deliver to Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson a plan, which I think could get 60 votes, which gives the American people the power, and they can choose a lower premium and an HSA,” he said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream. “We’re working on that. And I’ll give them a piece of paper probably by e-mail tonight.”

Cassidy is pushing for congressional leadership to advance his health care plan, which encourages Americans enrolled in Obamacare to switch to lower-premium, bronze-level plans with the hope that they would be able to afford higher out-of-pocket health care costs with new funding in their HSAs.

But the proposal faces skepticism from Democrats and health policy experts, who caution that it would do too little to help consumers facing skyrocketing premiums — merely shifting who they’d pay when — as health care subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t work out a deal to extend them.

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