Thread: Senate health care bill: 4 key Republicans come out against GOP plan

Senate health care bill: 4 key Republicans come out against GOP plan

By Brooke Singman
Published June 22, 2017
Fox News

What lies ahead for the Senate health care bill?

Key Republican senators came out against the Senate Republican health care plan on Thursday, and their opposition is enough to defeat the package before a vote.

Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said they would not vote on the Senate Republican plan in its current form.

"Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor," the statement said. "There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system but it does not appear this draft, as written, will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal ObamaCare and lower their health care costs."

Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday that if members who support the bill know they don't have the votes needed, discussion would begin earlier.

"I didn't run on ObamaCare lite," Paul said. "I think we can do better than this --my hope is not to defeat the bill, but to make the bill better."

Paul added: "Now the discussions begin -- I think it could take longer than a week."

Cruz acknowledged that he had not yet had "the opportunity" to fully review the bill in its entirety, but said "there are components that give me encouragement and there are also components that are a cause for deep concern."

“I have been clear from day one that I want to get to yes,” Cruz told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday. “Nobody has fought harder against ObamaCare in the Senate than I have, but we have to actually have legislation that fixes the underlying problem.”

Cruz said the current draft doesn’t do “nearly enough,” and would be a “disaster politically.” Cruz said that key components to “get everyone to yes” are lowering premiums, and giving the states flexibility.

Senate Republicans released a 142-page draft of their version of a "repeal and replace" health care plan on Thursday titled, “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017,” which eliminates a majority of ObamaCare provisions, already drawing backlash from Senate Democrats, and even some congressional Republicans.

The bill could go to a vote as early as next week, after the Congressional Budget Office reviews and gives a score to the new plan, but McConnell did not announce a specific timeline for consideration. The Congressional Budget Office expects to have a score for the draft “early next week.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., who rolled out the legislation, needs 50 votes to pass the bill to the House, with Vice President Mike Pence serving as the tie-breaking vote. But without the support of Paul, Cruz, Lee, and Johnson, passage of the bill in its current form will be nearly impossible, unless Republicans can manage to draw two Democratic votes, which is highly unlikely.

The bill repeals key components of ObamaCare, and manages to maintain some "crucial" conservative items congressional Republicans were looking for, like a cut to Planned Parenthood funding.

GOP SENATORS UNVEIL OBAMACARE OVERHAUL

But despite the early GOP-opposition, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he’s “glad the process is moving forward.”

“The Senate discussion draft is available for everyone to review,” Grassley said. “There will be a full debate before the Senate, with the ability for senators of both parties to offer amendments.”

But Democrats, as expected, are slamming the bill—and most are hanging on comments made by President Trump earlier this week, suggesting the House bill, called the American Health Care Act, was “mean.”

“The President said the Senate bill needs heart, the President says the House bill was mean,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Thursday after the bill was rolled out. “The Senate version is meaner—the House bill is a wolf, but this bill is a wolf with sharper teeth -- it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

At the White House, the president remained consistent in his comment from earlier in the week, and said he hoped to get “something done” with “heart.”

“We’d love to have some Democratic support, but they’re obstructionist,” Trump said. “Hopefully we’ll get something done and it’ll be something with heart and very meaningful.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said the bill is “even worse than expected” and called it “by far the most harmful piece of legislation I have seen in my lifetime.”

“Our job now is to rally millions of Americans against this disastrous bill to make sure it does not pass the Senate,” Sanders said.

Despite Sanders’, and other Democrats’ criticisms, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said the bill makes “no change” in current law when it comes to “protecting people with pre-existing conditions.”

McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday that Democrats “made it clear early on” that they “did not want to work with us,” but Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, said he had “never been asked.”

“It is not just a fiction, it is a gross fiction,” Wyden said.

Still, many members have yet to read the 142-page legislation in its entirety, with some Republicans hesitant to “forecast” votes, prior to reading the bill in full.

WHAT'S IN THE SENATE PROPOSAL: KEY PROVISIONS OF BETTER CARE RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2017

“I don’t know,” Sen. Luther Strange, R-La., told Fox News. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, already has “a number of concerns,” according to her spokesperson, and plans to read the bill in full.

“She has a number of concerns and will be particularly interested in examining the forthcoming CBO analysis on the impact on insurance coverage, the effect on insurance premiums, and the changes in the Medicaid program,” Collins’ spokeswoman Annie Clark said.

On the other side of the Capitol, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he had been briefed on the legislation, and is not going to “opine” the Senate’s process.

“I know how hard this process is from personal experience -- Last thing I want is to be disrespectful of the process ahead of them,” Ryan said. “We made a promise to repeal and replace -- eager for them to pass it but not going to opine on the details as they go along.”

Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., who authored a key amendment to the House’s plan, seemed satisfied with the Senate’s draft proposal.

“I am glad to see the Senate further improve the AHCA and put us one step closer,” MacArthur said.

McConnell said that when legislation comes to the floor, it will present Senate Democrats “another opportunity to do what’s right for the American people.”

Fox News' Chad Pergram, Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...-gop-plan.html

Senate Draft Health Care Proposal

https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/me...HEALTHCARE.pdf

Five GOP senators now oppose health care bill as written

BY ALAN FRAM AND REGINA GARCIA CANO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 24, 2017 at 9:27 AM EDT

Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) arrives at the Senate Judiciary Committee Privacy, Technology and the Law Subcommittee hearing on The Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on November 13, 2013. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters

WASHINGTON — Nevada Republican Dean Heller became the fifth GOP senator to declare his opposition to the party’s banner legislation to scuttle much of Barack Obama’s health care overhaul on Friday, more than enough to sink the measure and deliver a stinging rebuke to President Donald Trump unless some of them can be brought aboard.
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Echoing the other four, Heller said he opposes the measure “in this form” but does not rule out backing a version that is changed to his liking. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he’s willing to alter the measure to attract support, and next week promises plenty of back-room bargaining as he tries pushing a final package through his chamber.

Nonetheless, Heller’s announcement underscores the scant margin of error Republican leaders must deal with. Facing unanimous Democratic opposition, McConnell can afford to lose just two of the 52 GOP senators and still prevail.

Besides the five who’ve announced outright opposition, several other GOP senators — conservatives and moderates — have declined to commit to the new overhaul. The measure resembles legislation the House approved last month that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would mean 23 million additional uninsured people within a decade and that recent polling shows is viewed favorably by only around 1 in 4 Americans.

Heller, facing a competitive re-election battle next year, said he was opposing the legislation because of the cuts it would make in Medicaid. The federal-state program provides health care to the poor, disabled and many nursing home patients.

The Senate bill would also erase the tax penalties Obama’s 2010 law imposes on people who don’t purchase insurance. It would allow insurers to cover fewer benefits and repeal tax boosts on wealthier people that help finance the statute’s expanded coverage.

The Senate legislation would phase out extra federal money Nevada and 30 other states receive for expanding Medicaid to additional low earners. It would also slap annual spending caps on the overall Medicaid program, which since its inception in 1965 has provided states with unlimited money to cover eligible costs.

“I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans and tens of thousands of Nevadans,” Heller said.

Trump has spoken favorably about both the House-passed bill and the Senate version unveiled this week, though he declared several times as he ramped up his campaign for the presidency that he would not cut Medicaid.

Heller said that to win his vote, GOP leaders would have to “protect Medicaid expansion states” from the bill’s current cuts.

“It’s going to be very difficult to get me to a yes,” he said, noting that conservative Republican senators would likely be reluctant to add spending back to the measure.

Heller spoke at a news conference in Las Vegas with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican who has also assailed the House and Senate health care bills for cutting Medicaid. The state has added 200,000 more people to its program under the Obama overhaul.

READ NEXT: Another Senate Republican defects on health bill

Sandoval said the Senate bill “is something that needs to change.” It would be politically difficult for Heller to take a different stance on the measure from the popular Sandoval.

Heller got an opponent for next year when first-year Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen announced this week she would seek his Senate seat.

Just hours after McConnell released the 142-page legislation on Thursday, four conservatives said they opposed it. They were Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the bill, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who has not suggested she opposes the measure, declined to comment on its components when asked at a news conference Friday.

“It was just released yesterday. So, we have 142 pages to go through,” she said.

Asked about the bill’s impact on Medicaid insurance coverage for lower-income Iowans, Ernst said, “I wouldn’t say they are losing it.” Iowa opted to expand, and has added more than 150,000 people to its rolls since 2014.

READ NEXT: GOP senator warns against rushed vote on health care bill

Under special rules McConnell is using that will block Democrats from using a filibuster to kill the bill, the legislation cannot include provisions that make policy changes that don’t primarily affect the budget. The Senate parliamentarian will make that decision.

Democrats hope to use those rules to erase some language from the bill, including a section barring consumers from using the measure’s health care tax credits to buy insurance that covers abortions.

Realizing they’re outnumbered, Democrats and their liberal allies were planning events around the U.S. over the next few days aimed at building public opposition to the bill.

In one instance, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and MoveOn.org were planning weekend rallies in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Each state has expanded Medicaid and has a GOP senator.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...-bill-written/

They'll work it out. Trump isn't going to accept a fail on this.

Thread the damn needle, and get this bill passed.

No more time. No more BS. Solve the issues, vote, pass this bill so we can move on to tax cuts to create good jobs with benefits so Americans don't need Medicaid Expansion because they have great incomes with benefits and don't need government hand-outs.

Susan Collins Confirms She Will Vote To Block GOP Health Care Bill

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) confirmed Monday night that she will vote against her own party’s motion to proceed on a bill that would repeal much of the Affordable Care Act, cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, and trigger insurance coverage loss for 22 million people over the next 10 years.

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Sen. Susan Collins
✔@SenatorCollins

I want to work w/ my GOP & Dem colleagues to fix the flaws in ACA. CBO analysis shows Senate bill won't do it. I will vote no on mtp. 1/3
3:50 PM - 26 Jun 2017

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Speaking to reporters earlier on Monday night, Collins was non-committal on her vote, saying only that the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bill released earlier Monday was “obviously not positive.”

In subsequent tweets, she noted that “1 in 5 Mainers are on Medicaid” and would be severely impacted by the deep cuts in the bill. “Medicaid cuts hurt most vulnerable Americans; access to healthcare in rural areas threatened,” she wrote.

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Sen. Susan Collins
✔ @SenatorCollins

CBO says 22 million people lose insurance; Medicaid cuts hurt most vulnerable Americans; access to healthcare in rural areas threatened. 2/3

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Sen. Susan Collins
✔@SenatorCollins

Senate bill doesn't fix ACA problems for rural Maine. Our hospitals are already struggling. 1 in 5 Mainers are on Medicaid. 3/3
3:51 PM - 26 Jun 2017

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Collins’ announcement comes on the heels of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announcing that he will also vote no on the motion to proceed. Unlike Collins, who feels the bill goes too far in gutting Medicaid spending and rolling back protections for the sick and elderly, Paul slammed the legislation for not going far enough.

Several other GOP lawmakers critical of the bill have also suggested they may oppose the motion to proceed, which would stop the effort in its tracks. These “maybes” include Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), whose concerns range from the bill’s rushed and secretive process to its impact on their constituents.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/susa...ion-to-proceed

I don't know when or what Susan Collins has ever done to help us solve any problem or fix anything in our country. Does anyone?