It is always interesting to drill down into the logic and reason of why something like this would be put on the table. Sifting through potential "good" reasons for it to happen, or "good" reasons for it not to happen can be a fun and engaging exercise for the citizen brain.
Trust me, every politician mulling over the issue is sifting through those very same options. What we as citizens often fail to implement when it comes to our own analysis, is that politicians in today's world are not limited by logic, truth, or reason. Justification for the support of any certain policy can be based on information that is suspect, exaggerated, or entirely fabricated, and there is no real negative cost for the politician.
However, as with any decision made by an American politician in today's political climate, those reasons, explanations, and justifications are nothing more than a means to an ends. Simply figures plugged into an equation that will result in a total number of one of two things. After the numbers are run, and the totals are estimated, they are left with a simple way forward. Whichever option they believe will garner them a higher number of either, is the answer on whether to support or oppose. Like any business, and let's be real here, that is exactly what politics is, their job is then to market the selected option that they feel is the most likely to sell well in their target market (their constituents). If they succeed at this (which they will attempt to do at all costs) they will in fact receive a greater number of one of the two things that they are after.
And what are those two things? I have created the below diagram to explain how both of them play in to the overall strategy of nearly every American career politician (which is most all of them) on either side of the aisle.
As with most legislation, this is not about health. It is not about people. It is not about care. It is, as always, about what will be the most likely position to allow them to retain their employment, control, power, opportunity for advancement, and therefore, MONEY.