By Julie Rovner July
28, 2017
This
story was originally published on July 18.
After
a week of high drama, culminating in a one-vote loss for a last-ditch bill,
Senate Republicans conceded defeat early Friday morning in their seven-year
push to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.
The
failure, at least for now, breaks one of the key promises Republicans have made
to their voters since 2010, when the ACA first became law.
“This
has been a very challenging experience for all of us,” Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “It’s pretty clear
that there are not 50 Republicans at the moment to vote for a replacement for
Obamacare.”
Monday
night’s declaration of opposition by conservative Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and
Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) effectively scotched even the chance to start debate on the
version of a bill unveiled July 13.
McConnell
added that the Senate would vote early the following week on a plan,
originally approved in 2015 and
vetoed by President Barack Obama, that would repeal parts of the health law.
That approach would delay the effective date for two years to give lawmakers
time to come up with a replacement.
However,
the opposition of moderate Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Shelley Moore Capito
(R-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) ensured that vote would fail, too.
“To
just say ‘repeal and trust us, we’re going to fix it in a couple of years,’
that’s not going to provide comfort to the anxiety a lot of Alaskan families
are feeling right now,” Murkowski told reporters.
In
retrospect, Republicans’ inability to overhaul the health law should not come
as much of a surprise. Here are some of the reasons:
1.
It’s hard to take things away from people.
Once
launched, federal programs that provide people with benefits they find
important and valuable are very difficult to rescind. In the case of health
care, people’s lives can be at stake. In the current debate, patients who
feared what would happen to their health coverage made their concerns known —
loudly — to lawmakers.
2.
Republicans have long been divided on health care.
Republicans’
dirty little secret the past seven years is that the only thing they
fundamentally agreed on when it comes to health care was the slogan “repeal and
replace.” There’s a reason they failed to have a plan ready when Donald Trump
was elected president — all efforts to reach a consensus had thus far failed.
“I
did not come to Washington to hurt people,” said Capito in a statement. “I have
serious concerns about how we continue to provide affordable care to those who
have benefited from West Virginia’s decision to expand Medicaid.”
But
the more conservative members, notably Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have other
priorities. “All of us promised we would repeal Obamacare,” Paul told reporters
Tuesday. “If you’re not willing to vote the way you voted in 2015, then you
need to go back home and you need to explain to Republicans why you’re no
longer for repealing Obamacare.”
3.
Presidential leadership on hard issues is important.
President
Trump has been all over the place in what he said he wanted from a health bill.
It was his original insistence that “repeal and replace” happen simultaneously
that moved Congress away from its 2015 strategy of repealing first and
replacing later. He hosted a celebration in the White House Rose Garden when
the House passed its bill, then subsequently called the measure “mean” during a
strategy meeting with senators.
When
it became clear Monday night that the Senate effort was foundering, Trump tweeted:
“Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new
Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate.” But within hours he
instead suggested, “As I have
always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great
healthcare plan.”
The
president “gave them an impossible assignment with his promises (more, better,
cheaper for all) and neither policy nor bully pulpit help at crunch time,” said
Len Nichols, a professor of health policy at George Mason University. “And now
he’ll blame them for failing.”
Added
Thomas Miller, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute: “We now have
a randomized clinical trial that proves one cannot lead and govern via
Twitter.”
4.
Health care is complicated. Really.
Health
care has not traditionally been a major voting issue for Republicans, and thus
it has been a low priority — compared with issues like taxes and trade — for
the officials they elect.
Adding
to the complexity is that the Republicans’ bench is nowhere near as deep as the
Democrats’ when it comes to health policy expertise. Democrats have toiled on
these issues for years. Even before the Affordable Care Act, many had served in
Congress for decades and learned from the mistakes that were made on efforts like
the failed health bill under President Bill Clinton.
5.
Some parts of the ACA really are popular, even among Republicans.
The
requirement for most people to have insurance or else pay a fine — the
individual mandate — has consistently been unpopular among voters of all
political stripes. But many other major provisions of the health law, such as
guaranteeing coverage for people with preexisting conditions, remain broadly
popular.
In
fact, in recent months, the Affordable Care Act has been growing in popularity.
Most polls show it’s more than twice as popular as GOP efforts to overhaul it.
“Republicans
have to admit that some of the things in the ACA we actually liked,” said
Murkowski.
That
left a huge gap between Republicans who wanted to maintain the popular benefits
and those who wanted to repeal the law entirely. A gap that, so far,
Republicans have been unable to bridge.
Rachel
Bluth contributed to this story.
No comments:
Post a Comment