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How the GOP and Democrats might begin to compromise on health care

If the Republican health care reform effort fails, there may be at least a faint scent of bipartisanship in the air in Washington.
Source: Win McNamee/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned last week that Republicans’ failure to pass comprehensive health care reform could have dire consequences. He even warned of one scenario rarely seen here lately: bipartisanship.

There’s no guarantee that a holistic, bipartisan health care bill could succeed should McConnell’s nearly single-handed effort to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act fail. But Democrats at least claim they are willing to compromise.

“We’re all there,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said of his party’s willingness to work on fixes to existing law. “I don’t know what it ultimately looks like, but clearly we stabilize the insurance pool, clearly we want to get more young, healthy people in. Clearly we need to go after the price of prescription drugs. … All kinds of things.”

It is entirely possible, of course, that McConnell could wrangle enough votes to enact a GOP plan, and that a compromise approach will prove unnecessary.

Read more: Hospital groups slam health care bill released by Senate

And even if the Republican effort fails, members of both

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