Henry Waxman and George Miller spent their congressional careers advocating for reforms. | Getty

Henry Waxman and George Miller spent nearly 40 years pushing universal health care. John Dingell who helped pass the Medicare law in 1965 fought for a vision of health care coverage for all Americans as far back as the Kennedy administration.

Theyre all leaving Congress at the end of this month.

Story Continued Below

Who will be the new health care leaders for Democrats? Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Ben Cardin of Maryland want more delivery system reforms. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington wants better contraceptive coverage and more doctors. All three want to beef up mental health coverage. And Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey arent even saying whats on their agenda they want the Republicans to go first. Its all smaller bore stuff a real comedown from the visions of the past.

The generational upheaval leaves the national health care debate in flux as a new Republican Congress takes control in January. There are no clear grand plans that can break the cycle of Obamacare fights, but the lack of big Democratic ideas and defenders leaves the health care law open to change. In fact, one of the most eagerly awaited proposals is actually coming from Republicans a replacement for Obamacare thats being developed by two possible GOP presidential candidates: Paul Ryan, whos about to become the new House Ways and Means Committee chairman, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio has described it, but neither one will say when its going to be released.

(Also on POLITICO: Massive spending bill kicks off 113th Congress final chapter)

Some Democrats hope that the changing of the guard occurring as the health care law is starting to run more smoothly means there will be more chances to move on, and even focus on health care issues that dont automatically put both parties at each others throats.

Health care has been in lockdown for the last four years, said Murphy, who took a leading role in pro-Obamacare messaging this year and may become a more prominent health care voice in the next Congress. My hope is that the health care debate will loosen up as the ACA settles in.

The Republicans, meanwhile, are losing Dave Camp, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman from Michigan who played a major role in the GOPs pushback against Obamacare. And Montana Democrat Max Baucus, the former Senate Finance Committee chairman who had a big hand in the writing of the law, left earlier this year to become ambassador to China.

Visit link:

Health care torch passed to nobody