Concord Monitor (NH)
Washington Post
Republican critics of the Senate’s
latest version of health care legislation were energized after leaders
postponed votes on the measure, yet another sign the bill’s fortunes are in
limbo.
A vocal conservative opponent of the
measure, Sen. Rand Paul, predicted the delay would strengthen critics’ position
by giving them more time to mobilize against the bill.
“The longer the bill is out there,
the more conservative Republicans are going to discover it is not repeal,”
Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
Paul said he spoke with President
Donald Trump on Friday and suggested the president support repealing the
Affordable Care Act and deciding the details of a replacement plan later if the
latest version of the bill does not pass.
Trump did not comment on health care
over the weekend, even as his party faced new challenges in trying to advance
their latest bill. Trump made no reference to health care Sunday in an angry
morning tweetstorm about Hillary Clinton, the Russia controversy and other
topics.
The lack of response from Trump came
after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced Saturday he is recovering from a
surgery and would be absent from votes, depriving Republicans of the support
they need to advance the legislation. The development temporarily dashed Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s hopes of wrapping up the health care debate
by passing a reworked version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act this week.
The White House also was largely
silent about health care over the weekend. “We wish Senator McCain a speedy
recovery,” Helen Ferré, White House director of media affairs, told reporters
Sunday when asked about the Senate delay.
The bill experienced a separate blow
on Friday and Saturday at a conference of governors in Providence, R.I., where,
despite an energetic lobbying campaign, Trump administration officials failed
to gain support from influential
Republicans such as Nevada Gov. Brian
Sandoval. Opposition from Sandoval and others will make it easier for undecided
Republican senators from those states to vote “no” on the bill, potentially
further endangering its prospects.
These setbacks are the latest in the
GOP’s struggle to enact a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act and fulfill a
campaign promise central to the party’s message over the past seven years.
Despite unified control of Congress and Trump in the White House, disagreements
within the GOP still threaten to cripple its effort to overhaul the health care
system.
The difficult political calculus
facing Republicans was clear in a new poll released Sunday showing the public
prefers the Affordable Care Act to the Republican health care plan by a roughly
2-to-1 margin. Among Republicans, 59 percent preferred the GOP plan, compared
with 11 percent who preferred the current law.
The same poll, conducted by the
Washington Post and ABC News, found a strong majority (63 percent) believes it
is more important for the government to provide health coverage to low-income
people compared with cutting taxes (27 percent). Among Republicans, 48 percent
favored cutting taxes, compared with 39 percent who favored providing health
coverage for low-income people.
The bill’s dramatic cuts to the
Medicaid program are a significant concern for governors like Sandoval as well
as moderate senators such as Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Vice President Mike Pence and other
administration officials sought to allay these fears on Friday and Saturday by
arguing that the health care bill shores up Medicaid’s finances to preserve the
program for the future. They also downplayed the possible effects of the cuts.
“President Trump and I believe the
Senate health care bill strengthens and secures Medicaid for the neediest in
our society,” Pence said in a speech to governors on Friday. “And this bill
puts this vital American program on a path to long-term sustainability.”
Collins strongly disagreed in an
interview Sunday with CNN.
“You can’t take more than $700
billion out of the Medicaid program and not think that it’s going to have some
kind of effect,” she said during an appearance on State of the Union.
“This bill imposes fundamental,
sweeping changes in the Medicaid program, and those include very deep cuts that
would affect some of the most vulnerable people in our society, including
disabled children and poor seniors. It would affect our rural hospitals and our
nursing homes, and they would have a very hard time even staying in existence.”
Pence’s speech was criticized by
Democrats, health care advocates and even some Republicans for
mischaracterizing the possible ramifications of the GOP bill.
During the same speech, the vice
president went after Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a republican, a critic of the
legislation, by suggesting his state’s expansion of Medicaid left nearly 60,000
residents with disabilities “stuck on waiting lists, leaving them without the
care they need for months or even years.”
The claim alienated many at the
meeting, partly because waiting lists for Medicaid’s home- and community-based
services were not affected by the program’s expansion under the ACA, and partly
because many interpreted Pence’s remark as an overly aggressive shot at Kasich.
The Ohio governor’s stance against the bill could shape the position of Sen.
Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a pivotal vote for Republicans who is undecided on the
current version. Some fear Pence missed an opportunity to woo Portman with his
remark against Kasich.
Collins estimated Sunday that there
are eight to 10 Republican senators with “serious concerns” about the bill. “At
the end of the day, I don’t know whether it will pass,” she said.
Paul does not believe Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has the votes to pass the legislation, he told
Fox.
“I don’t think right now (McConnell)
does,” he said.
The administration was not interested
in entertaining analyses – including one by consulting firm Avalere – that show
potentially devastating consequences for states under the GOP bill. At a
meeting Saturday morning with governors, Health and Human Services Secretary
Tom Price and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, worked to undermine that report and a forthcoming analysis
by the Congressional Budget Office showing the legislation’s cost and insurance
impact. This effort bore little fruit, with Sandoval and others showing no signs
of being moved by the lobbying effort.
The Avalere study projected marked
reductions in federal Medicaid funding to all 50 states, ranging from 27
percent to 39 percent by 2036.
The CBO report is expected Tuesday or
later in the week.
Price defended the health care bill
Sunday, saying it will be part of a longer reform effort.
“The bill itself is not the entire
plan,” he told ABC’s This Week. “It is significant, and an important and
integral part of the plan, but it’s not the entire plan.”
https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/gop-opponents-health-care-bill-happy-delay
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