And that was in a chamber Republicans control 238-193.
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Senate Republican leaders signalled they would pursue a process known as budget reconciliation, which would enable them pass a healthcare bill with a simple 51-majority vote. Nonetheless, with a razor-thin margin, House Republicans rammed their deeply unpopular Trumpcare bill through the House.
The House bill would eliminate fines on people who don’t buy policies and erase taxes on health industry businesses and higher earners. Conservative health care analyst James Capretta says the odds for survival “are low” for House language allowing state waivers for higher premiums on people with pre-existing conditions.
The measure would replace Obama’s federal subsidies for lower-income insurance buyers with tax credits geared to consumers’ ages.
The program that provides health care to 74 million poor, disabled, and elderly people would be gutted to the tune of $880 billion in cuts over 10 years.
How could the people’s representatives swing, in the space of 24 hours, from bipartisan congratulations to partisan recriminations? “At least if they waited for the estimate, they could make further changes to the bill that might respond to concerns”.
“If somebody that already has pre-existing conditions and is on health insurance … what’s going to happen is the health insurance is going to raise their premiums compared to those who don’t have pre-existing conditions”, said Janke, 49, of Hopewell Township.
“At the end of the day, the cost of healthcare in this country is about $3 trillion, which comes out to about $9,500 per year per person”, he said.
The television and online blitz is expected to seize on the more unpopular provisions in the GOP plan, which was opposed by the AARP, the American Medical Association, which represents doctors, and the American Hospital Association. And how many people would lose coverage because of other changes in the House plan?
Several come from northeastern and Midwestern states with large numbers of low-income people receiving Medicaid.
Republicans praised $15 billion in additional Pentagon spending obtained by Trump, as well as $1.5 billion in emergency spending for border security, though not for the wall he has vowed to build along the U.S. -Mexico border to deter illegal immigration, and the extension of a school voucher program in the District of Columbia.
Some senators have already voiced displeasure with the health care bill that cleared the House last week, with Republicans providing all the “yes” votes in the 217-213 count. The House measure would let states escape Obama’s requirement that insurers cover anti-drug services.
Even if Republicans manage to get their ACA repeal bill through the Senate, they’ll have to reconcile differences between Senate and House versions, meaning the House will have to do this all over again.
He highlighted the Healthy Michigan Plan, which was created through the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, as an example of one piece of the health care law that has worked.
Trump, eager to deliver on a top campaign promise, sought Sunday to pressure Senate Republicans on the issue. “This is going to come back to bite them”.
GOP Sens. Susan Collins of ME and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for example, don’t like that the House bill cuts funding for Planned Parenthood. She says the House bill is hard to assess because it was passed without a fresh Congressional Budget Office analysis of coverage and cost. – It would block federal payments to Planned Parenthood for a year. Some senators may be hoping for an easy out by only making superficial changes. But this is one of the most critical moments in recent American political history.
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During the campaign and after his election, Donald Trump pledged that under his presidency there would be no cuts to Medicaid, that he would make sure people could buy health insurance from companies in other states to boost competition, and that there would be “insurance for everybody”. Fortunately for McConnell only two are in any serious jeopardy, Dean Heller of Nevada and Jeff Flake of Arizona, but they are certain to be particularly cautious about casting their vote for anything that jeopardizes their constituents.
