22 July, 2017
It would do nothing to address the bill's harm to people with private coverage, including the loss of coverage for millions of people (due largely to sharp cuts in marketplace subsidies), increased costs for those who stay covered, and the loss of access to health care for millions with pre-existing conditions.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says he wants to hold a vote on the new repeal-only legislation, or replacement legislation if it can be hashed out, next week.
The Senate is expected to vote on healthcare next week but it is not yet clear if the vote will be for a straight repeal of the ACA or for the ACA's repeal and replacement with another bill.
Donald Trump will likely celebrate his six-month anniversary in the White House on Thursday seething over the embarrassing collapse of Republicans' plan to overturn his predecessor's signature domestic achievement. Trump was apparently referring to efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act or ACA, also known as Obamacare. The demise of the Senate's health care bill should spark a new bipartisan effort to fix the Affordable Care Act. Congress' nonpartisan fiscal analyst said Wednesday the repeal-only bill would mean 32 million additional uninsured people over a decade and average premiums doubling. Many of them might choose to retreat to safer lines of business in the uncertain "zombie" period between the passage of such a repeal bill and its ultimate enactment. This proposal, dubbed the "Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act", was scrutinized by the Congressional Budget Office, which released its report late yesterday. The party of no label that was hung on Republicans was accurate.
While repealing billions of dollars in taxes Obamacare imposed to pay for expanding health coverage to more Americans, the legislation would still decrease deficits by $473 billion over 10 years because of the spending reductions. It would also get rid of the mandates on employers and individuals, roll back taxes and rescind the Medicaid expansion to low-income people. But Republicans say that it has driven up premiums and forced consumers to buy insurance they do not want and can not afford.
With Democrats united in opposition, Mr McConnell can only lose two votes from his 52-48 majority in the 100-seat Senate to pass the bill.
McConnell said Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma would meet with GOP senators on the Hill on Wednesday night.
Trump then picked out a few of the senators who have been giving him and the GOP leadership headaches by failing to get behind the repeal and replace legislation - including one who was sitting right next to him.
