By Mara Lee | June
27, 2017
Facing rebellion on the left and the right, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell on Tuesday delayed a vote on the Senate replacement for the
Affordable Care Act.
McConnell hoped to bring the Better Care Reconciliation Act to the Senate floor for debate and a vote this week, so public outcry during next week's congressional holiday wouldn't weaken senators' resolve to repeal the ACA.
But after senators from Maine, Nevada, Utah and Wisconsin all said they would vote against a motion to begin debate, McConnell pulled the bill for continued intraparty negotiations. The announcement came during a closed-door GOP lunch.
The decision comes just one day after the Congressional Budget Office revealed its analysis of the Senate bill, saying the plan would cause 22 million to lose their health coverage by the end of the decade. The House's American Health Care Act had a similar impact with 23 million projected to lose their coverage.
The Senate bill does more to drive down exchange premiums, thanks to its proposed subsidy system for individual insurance policies. That proposal is more similar to Obamacare than the House's American Health Care Act.
Senate GOP leadership hoped the proposed subsidies would sweeten the pot and encourage wary senators to support the bill, but to no avail.
The Senate has 15 more working days before its long August recess. GOP leadership has said that the end of July is the absolute deadline for the bill.
McConnell hoped to bring the Better Care Reconciliation Act to the Senate floor for debate and a vote this week, so public outcry during next week's congressional holiday wouldn't weaken senators' resolve to repeal the ACA.
But after senators from Maine, Nevada, Utah and Wisconsin all said they would vote against a motion to begin debate, McConnell pulled the bill for continued intraparty negotiations. The announcement came during a closed-door GOP lunch.
The decision comes just one day after the Congressional Budget Office revealed its analysis of the Senate bill, saying the plan would cause 22 million to lose their health coverage by the end of the decade. The House's American Health Care Act had a similar impact with 23 million projected to lose their coverage.
The Senate bill does more to drive down exchange premiums, thanks to its proposed subsidy system for individual insurance policies. That proposal is more similar to Obamacare than the House's American Health Care Act.
Senate GOP leadership hoped the proposed subsidies would sweeten the pot and encourage wary senators to support the bill, but to no avail.
The Senate has 15 more working days before its long August recess. GOP leadership has said that the end of July is the absolute deadline for the bill.
Mara Lee covers developments in health care
policy in Congress and around Washington. This is her second time covering the
Hill. In a previous life, she covered Midwestern delegations for Scripps and
Gannett newspapers in Indiana and Michigan. Over her 20-year-plus-career, she’s
spent more time outside the Beltway, both as a business reporter for The
Hartford Courant and nine years in Ohio, mostly at the Dayton Daily News. She
won an award for coverage of Oxycontin addiction Ohio in 2003, as well as for
Census, business and breaking news coverage in Ohio and Connecticut. She’s a
Virginia native, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill. Twitter handle: MaraRhymesSarah
No comments:
Post a Comment