Biden has won.
Presuming the North Carolina and Alaska Senate seats remain in Republican hands, the Senate will come out no better for Democrats than a 50-50 tie with Vice President-elect Harris being the tiebreaker. And, if Republicans win at least one of the two Georgia run-off Senate races, the Republicans will maintain control and the Democrats will not have the votes to move any partisan health care legislation.
But the Democrats will control the Department of Health and Human Services and the federal government's health care regulatory apparatus.
I will suggest that the health care plan Biden campaigned on can be summarized into three primary parts:
- Fixing the Obamacare/Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual health insurance subsidies for the middle class.
- Giving Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices.
- Creating a government-run individual health insurance plan option called the Public Option.
