“Right now we don’t have a codification on the book, per say, in state insurance law that says here are these ten essential health benefits, you have to cover them”, said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Serve Society of NY.
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“You know, one of the dynamics we’ve got is the Democratic radical left is demanding of Senate Democrats that they oppose everything, that they engage in across-the-board obstruction”, Cruz said Monday. “Our Republican colleagues know that since they control, you know, the House, the Senate and the White House, that a shutdown would fall on their shoulders, and they don’t want it”. Especially when, like Trump, your approval ratings are mired in the low 40s – and are even lower in numerous country’s swing districts where Republicans need to win to hold onto their House majority in 2018. That’s why we introduced the American Health Care Act, a bill to repeal some of the most harmful provisions on the ACA.
If there’s no deal, the government will partially shut down April 29: Trump’s 100th day in office.
Yes, Trump could be the beneficiary of tax reform that includes, say, a repeal of the estate tax. However, visible disagreements are mounting between the Trump administration and Congress Republicans over the planned tax reform and financial sector deregulation – where the GOP are willing to go all the way, the President has, surprisingly, a more balanced and inclusive approach to the policies discussed.
Democrats and Republicans have been working behind the scenes to reach a deal.
Several conservatives wanted to see the bill lift burdensome and costly regulations that require insurance companies to keep a standard, minimum package of benefits – such as maternity care, hospitalization, and mental health services.
Boyle noted that the House Freedom Caucus has been trying to get legislation that would lower Americans’ healthcare premiums, something Ryan’s original bill did not do.
Ryan said there’d been good progress on a new version, and complimented the work toward a compromise done by Representatives Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Tom MacArthur of New Jersey in narrowing the differences between conservative and moderate Republicans that helped to doom the previous effort. From the tax returns to a not-so-blind trust that allows Trump undisclosed business profits to this month’s news that the White House will no longer release visitors’ logs, Trump has been alarmingly secretive.
“I’m not going to be for a plan that’s going to allow for preexisting conditions to not be covered”, he told CNN.
Ryan called off a March 24 House vote on the measure after realizing that objections by conservative and moderate Republicans would have assured its defeat.
But there are widespread doubts that the new attempt has achieved the support it needs.
“We’re going to get it done when it’s appropriate in terms of getting to that 216”, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, referring to the vote total needed for House passage before the bill goes to the Senate.
Even Trump appeared to downplay the need for speed. The manufacturing sector has shrunk dramatically, and now retail may be starting down the same path; long-lost jobs in industries such as coal mining are not coming back, no matter what Trump says.
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As a result, there are some pockets of doubt in Washington that Congress can come together on anything – even something as basic as government funding. But negotiations on the spending measure, a huge pile of leftover business from previous year that includes the budgets of nearly every federal agency, have hit a rough patch. Democrats have signaled they would not cooperate if it contains money for one of Trump’s top priorities, a southwestern border wall meant to combat illegal immigration, or if it ends federal subsidies to help low-income people buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which Republicans want to repeal. Democrats need funds for health insurers to make the Affordable Care Act work.
