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September 20, 2017 at 05:48 AM
The Republican leaders of the Senate Finance Committee are doing what they can to scrape up a majority in the Senate for the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill.
The committee says it will hold a hearing on the Affordable Care change bill at 10 a.m. EDT Monday, according to a hearing notice.
Earlier this week, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., one of the sponsors of the bill, and the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, tried to help the Graham-Cassidy bill by scheduling a hearing on the concept of using state block grants to reduce health care costs.
(Related: Health Care Service Corp. ACA Exchange Plans Look Better: Moody’s)
Now that the Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing, Johnson has canceled his committee’s hearing.
“I appreciate the Senate Finance Committee’s willingness to hold a hearing on this important health care reform bill,” Johnson said in a statement.
Johnson said in the statement that he had scheduled his committee’s hearing in the first place because no committee with direct jurisdiction over the bill had scheduled a hearing.
Republican Senator Math
Graham-Cassidy bill backers believe that they will get no votes from Democrats or independents and will need to attract the votes of at least 50 of the Senate’s Republicans to get the bill through the Senate. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has said he will vote against the bill because it does not eliminate enough of the ACA.
Several other Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have expressed concerns about the bill, or uncertainty about the bill.
