April 30, 2014

You could cite Tuesday's solar eclipse for a rare moment of bipartisan accord on the Affordable Care Act in Congress this week.

To be more precise, Delaware avoided the loss of 500 high-salaried jobs due to Rep. John Carney's dogged pursuit of a rational approach to political life – your detractors are only your opponents until you can deliver what both of you commonly need.

Carney's Republican colleagues in the House needed to keep several major insurance companies who employ American workers on U.S. soil. To do that, Carney led the state's congressional delegation in fixing an unintended glitch in the ACA.

Thousands of employees working here write so-called expatriate health policies for Cigna, Metlife, Aetna and United Health. As a result, they earn high-end salaries to insure compliance with Obamacare rules. However, they compete with foreign insurance companies that also sell similar plans.

Nevertheless, those foreign competitors do not have to comply with key ACA mandates, which reduce the costs considerably.

It is too risky for Congress to try to level the playing field when it comes to foreign companies.

"Forcing U.S. expatriate insurance plans to comply with the Affordable Care Act gives their foreign competitors a distinct advantage," Carney reminded House Republicans. "It makes plans written in the U.S. more expensive, which gives companies an incentive to purchase foreign-based plans instead."

The resulting job loss in U.S. could rise to 1,200 positions, once some 700 positions in California are considered.

"Losing even just one job in my state keeps me up at night. The prospect of losing 500 jobs is a punch to the gut," Carney told his colleagues during his four-minute floor speech Tuesday.

"We've been working on this issue for three years. The crafting of this bill has been a more collaborative, bipartisan process than this chamber has seen in quite awhile," Carney reminded his audience.

This was not a loss for the ACA's goal of providing affordable health care to American workers. It was a victory for a more pragmatic political approach that took into account the real economic costs for citizens and their local tax base.

As a result, Tuesday's vote ensures that American expatriate insurance carriers are on a level playing field with their foreign competitors, so that American jobs stay here in America.

And in any economy, securing jobs is a high enough priority to win over your more ardent detractors, who also have voters to face in a coming election.