The White House and
Senate GOP leaders have nearly $200 billion in savings to divvy up among
senators’ priorities to secure votes for the imperiled bill.
By JOSH DAWSEY and BURGESS EVERETT
06/26/2017
11:51 PM EDT
White House and
Capitol Hill officials are exploring potential deals to divvy up billions of
dollars to individual senators’ priorities in a wide-ranging bid to secure
votes for the imperiled GOP health care bill.
A Congressional
Budget Office score that projected 22 million fewer Americans would have
insurance under the plan sent some members fleeing Monday and left the bill in
jeopardy of failing to have enough votes to even be called to the Senate floor
this week.
But Republicans in
the White House and in Congress were pleasantly surprised that the bill
included more savings than they expected — and are trying to figure out if they
can dole it out for votes.
The Senate has about
$188 billion to play with.
Among the possible
changes: More spending for health savings accounts to appease conservatives
such as Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee, according to three people familiar
with the matter, and some additional Medicaid and opioid spending for
moderates.
"We are still
working with leadership to change the base bill," a Lee aide said.
Lee, Cruz and others
on the right have been looking to wipe out as much of Obamacare as possible and
replace it with health savings accounts, group plans and selling insurance
across state lines, among other ideas. It’s not clear whether the Senate
parliamentarian would allow all of those proposals through under strict
reconciliation rules. And Lee will likely require far more dramatic changes to
be won over.
Meanwhile, senators
from Medicaid expansion states huddled after the CBO score revealed the nearly
$200 billion in savings to see whether they could get GOP leaders to put more
money into Medicaid and to thwart drug addiction. Those modifications might
take place on the Senate floor, but Republicans are divided on how to use the
money.
Negotiations are
likely to continue quickly behind the scenes over the next 24 hours and could
draw the ire of good government groups and advocates. Republicans hammered
Democrats for supposedly crafting Obamacare in secret seven years ago and for
handing out goodies to wavering Democratic senators.
But the GOP bill has
been roundly criticized for being negotiated and written in secret — and the
final terms are leaving even some Republicans queasy.
One Senate aide said
that Tuesday would be "all about side deals," and another person
familiar with the discussions said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had
already begun talking about private deals.
"There's no
one-size-fits-all to getting these people on board," said one White House
official. "Each of them want different things, and we have to figure out
if there is a path."
Defenders of the bill
note that Obamacare's markets are struggling and the coverage losses are
partially due to people choosing not to buy coverage, because there would no
longer be a government mandate.
Any changes to
appease moderates could face severe blowback from conservatives.
“There are some
people who have some designs on that,” said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota
Republican. “It wouldn’t be a bad thing if we put the money toward deficit
reduction."
The bill remains in
peril. It is also unclear whether there is enough money to give out that could
win over the divided GOP Conference.
Time is of the
essence.
McConnell has said he
wants a vote this week no matter what, even as some White House officials have
said they wouldn't mind a delay and are fearful the votes aren't there with the
current legislation.
“You could make an
argument for delaying it if you could get a better policy, but this is the best
we could do to satisfy all the different aspects of our conferences,” Thune
said.
“There’s no reason
not to get this done this week,” said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri. “And the CBO
score was a little better than I thought it would be.”
White House officials
said they were increasingly looking to Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Dean Heller
(R-Nev.) — and if the two maintained their opposition, the bill was likely
dead. Senate leadership has largely written off Paul, and a Trump outside group
has begun attacking Heller, drawing some head-scratching from Senate aides.
Tim Alberta
contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment