Cody quoted in Press Herald article on Sen. Collins, health care bill
Howard Cody, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Maine, was quoted in a Portland Press Herald article about Sen. Susan Collins saying the 13 Republican senators charged with drafting a health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act are unlikely to succeed. Collins is working with a moderate group of Democratic and Republican senators on a bipartisan alternative, according to the article. In January, Collins and Sen. Bill Cassidy unveiled an ACA replacement bill that is much more centrist than the House bill, the Press Herald reported. Cody said the Cassidy-Collins bill is “much better” than the House bill, but it almost certainly won’t become law. He said Democrats and left-leaning independents like King want to keep the ACA, and are not going to vote for anything that weakens it further. Meanwhile, a centrist bill that clears the Senate would not pass muster with House conservatives, the article states. “I don’t see how it could pass the House,” Cody said.