Why Donald Trump won't be able to force Obamacare collapse

DOUG MILLS  NYT
DOUG MILLS NYT
Author

06 August, 2017

President Obama paid them anyway, and lost a court battle in which a judge side with House Republicans who said the payments were illegal.

"In addition, state-funded hospitals will suffer financially when they are unable to recoup costs from uninsured, indigent patients for whom federal law requires them to provide medical care", the court order said.

The insurers face a deadline in mid-August for completing their rates and another in late-September to sign agreements with the government to offer health plans in 2018.

But after six months of controversies and historically low approval ratings, it's clear Trump isn't commanding the fear or respect he once did. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of NY says that's "not what an adult does".

The Republican leader told reporters on Tuesday that the reason for the collapse of health care legislation was not Democrats in opposition, but rather, "we didn't have 50 Republicans". "If you look at the elections last fall nearly every Republican senator who was up for re-election ran ahead of Trump and that's not a fact that's lost on Congress".

That is likely contributing to their defiance, which is emerging now after an accumulation of frustrations, culminating in the failure of the health care bill Friday.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said the debate over raising the country's debt ceiling could stretch into September and he sought bipartisan support for the legislation to prevent a government default.

McCain said after his vote that the procedural gambit was the wrong course of action.

Democrats are objecting to any Republican attempt to pass tax reform though reconciliation, a Senate procedure that sets aside the three-fifths majority commonly required to advance a bill. And, other states that have released their rates have said that they had to make their rates higher because of the uncertainty created by Trump's threats to cancel the payments - in Colorado it means rate increases almost 30% more for next year. This isn't a bailout in the sense that insurers overstepped their bounds and need government support to survive.

With the issue unresolved, the Trump administration has been paying insurers each month, as President Barack Obama's administration had done previously.

After the Senate GOP's health plan was defeated in a stunning turn of events last week, some top Republicans have signaled they will start to work with Democrats to shore up parts of the Affordable Care Act.

It's called a recess, although members of Congress prefer the phrase "district work period".

It wasn't President Donald Trump who turned health care into a partisan battleground, but his "repeal or bust" strategy certainly hasn't encouraged middle-ground solutions. "It's time for new leadership in Washington", the ad reads.

But a federal court found that Congress hasn't properly approved money to do that.

So what happens if Trump decides to end these payments?

"It would represent a new, harsher type of triangulation, turning his base against the politicians of his own party that they elected", Alberta said.

Senior Democrats say Mr. Trump is taking a mean-spirited position.

On the need to eventually deal with health care, Hatch later told reporters: "We're going to have to face it and try and do what needs to be done", but that he and other Republicans would tell the White House that the Senate has chose to address other parts of its agenda for the time being. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said on "Fox News Sunday" that Trump will make a decision on that this week.

Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, a Democrat running for Hatch's seat, said in saying the Senate is divided on health care, Hatch is admitting that "bipartisanship is too much of a burden for him".

Their drive crashed last week.

"The president isn't giving up on health care and neither should the Senate", Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney declared on CNN on Wednesday.

Senate Republicans were primed to pass healthcare legislation Thursday night, but Arizona Republican Sen.


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