McConnell Says Senate Nears ACA Bill Vote as GOP Doubts Linger

June 06, 2017 at 01:21 PM
Share & Print

(Bloomberg) — Senate Republicans are getting closer to introducing their plan to change the Affordable Care Act, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, though he gave no details and some members said they're not expecting action on a bill anytime soon.

"We're getting closer to having a proposal that we'll be bringing up in the near future," McConnell of Kentucky told reporters after a closed-door Senate GOP luncheon. "We've had seven years to talk about health care," he said. "We believe we can do better than the status quo."

Another key Republican also expressed optimism. "I'm very encouraged," said Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is seen as a pivotal vote. "Of course, it's not everything I want, but that's life."

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah said that while Republicans are talking with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on various ideas, "we are not there yet." Asked when a Senate bill may be introduced, he said, "I doubt it will be real soon."

President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday, "I'm sure the Senate will follow through and get a bill across the finish line this summer that will be great health care for Americans." But Senate GOP members weren't talking about timetables.

Campaign Pledge

Senate Republicans are seeking consensus on a more modest heath plan than the one passed May 4 by the House as they seek to make a start at keeping their campaign pledge to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act. A 13-member working group of Senate Republicans includes lawmakers with varying views.

Senators had said earlier they were weighing a two-step process that would postpone a repeal until 2020, with an initial priority on stabilizing premium costs in the Affordable Care Act public exchange system in 2018 and 2019 and continuing subsidies that help low-income Americans afford individual policies.

Republicans, including John Thune of South Dakota and Susan Collins of Maine, say stabilizing the markets is vital after insurers dropped out of providing individual insurance coverage in Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee and other states.

"I hope it could ride together" with long-term changes to health care system, but Congress may need to make short-term revisions quickly to reassure the markets, Thune said.

Anthem Inc. said Tuesday that it's dropping individual exchange coverage in Ohio next year, citing a "lack of certainty of funding" for cost-sharing subsidies the government pays insurers to help reduce low-income Americans' health costs and "an increasing lack of overall predictability" in the market.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (Photo: Schumer)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (Photo: Schumer)

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, a member of the Republican leadership team, said senators are discussing a rollback of the ACA expansion of the Medicaid program for low-income Americans, but not as abruptly as the House bill, H.R. 1628. The House measure would end the expansion in 2020 as part of program cuts of $834 billion over a decade. He said the Senate GOP is looking at a "glide path" lasting beyond 2020.

Expressing Doubts

A number of Senate Republicans have expressed doubt in the last week about whether the Senate can pass health care legislation this year, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

The House barely managed to pass its version of the bill with a razor-thin 217-213 vote after weeks of talks with Republican dissidents. The CBO said May 25 that Republicans' revised bill would undermine insurance markets in some states and result in 23 million more people without insurance.

Senate Democrats are ramping up the pressure, calling the House bill a large tax cut for the wealthy in a thin disguise. The House bill includes $664 billion in tax cuts over a decade, while also cutting Medicaid and making other reductions in insurance subsidies for low-income and sick people.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said that Republicans are finding themselves in "no man's land" by trying to use a streamlined process to pass an ACA change bill without Democratic support.

'Political Tool'

The Trump administration's decision to hold cost-sharing payments "hostage as a political tool" is to blame for insurance companies deciding not to offer coverage in certain areas, Schumer said.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, on Tuesday called the House bill "Robin Hood in reverse" and said it "moves America back to yesteryear, when health care was for the healthy and the wealthy." Wyden said he has little reason to think Senate Republicans will abandon the House bill's general framework.

Polls have found the House bill is unpopular. Fifty-five% of adult Americans have an unfavorable view of the measure, while 31% view it positively, according to a May 16-22 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Only 8% of those surveyed think the Senate should pass the House measure without changes.

—With assistance from Steven T. Dennis, Jennifer Jacobs and Erik Wasson.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Related Stories

Resource Center