Health plan dead on arrival?
begin quote from:
Conservative Republicans in Congress are among the most vocal opponents of Obamacare repeal bill
Spicer compares healthcare bills by size
The GOP's Obamacare replacement bill: Dead on arrival?
Story highlights
- Members of the House Freedom Caucus aired their concerns with a new bill
- "From a conservative's perspective, there are a number of things that need further refinement," said Rep. Mark Sanford
Washington (CNN)That didn't take long. The Republican Party's freshly unveiled bill to repeal Obamacare is already in trouble.
House
Republican leaders are proud of their plan to roll back key pillars of
the Affordable Care Act. But Tuesday, the proposal has invited criticism
from rank-and-file lawmakers, powerful conservative groups and key
senators that could threaten the bill's survival.
The
fiercest opposition is coming from some of the most conservative
Republicans in Congress who have labeled the new legislation "Obamacare
Lite" and "Obamacare 2.0." They are warning party leaders that the bill
simply doesn't go far enough in gutting the current health care system.
"The
bill's dead. Too many conservative groups are coming out against it.
There's no way they'll have the votes to pass it in its current form," a
conservative House aide told CNN, in a sign of some lawmakers' desire
to flex their muscles and make a hard push for changes to the bill.
GOP
Rep. Mark Sanford, whose Obamacare bill written with Paul has been
endorsed by the Freedom Caucus, told CNN on Tuesday that he would "lean
no" on the House GOP legislation unless changes are made.
"From
a conservative's perspective, there are a number of things that need
further refinement," Sanford said. "This notion of a refundable tax
credit is a big deal, Medicaid expansion is a big deal, the Cadillac tax
is a big deal."
Sen. Rand Paul
told CNN that the current bill would be "dead on arrival" in the House:
"I don't think it's ever going to arrive in the Senate. I think it's
dead on arrival in the House," the Kentucky Republican told CNN.
Rep.
Jim Jordan, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, announced that he and
Paul would introduce in each chamber a "clean repeal" bill in order to
separate out repeal and replace.
Jordan criticized the GOP leadership's health care bill as "Obamacare in a different form."
"That is not what we promised the American people that we're going to do," he said.
House leaders insist that they have the votes they need.
GOP
chief deputy whip Patrick McHenry told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the bill
will be passed "almost as it has been introduced with some minor
changes," though he admitted, "it won't be without drama."
To
try to shore up support, Vice President Mike Pence was on Capitol Hill
Tuesday meeting with lawmakers, including conservative members with
serious concerns. But members signaled that they want to exercise their
political leverage.
"This is the
beginning of the negotiation," Paul said. "The House Freedom Caucus'
power and the power of several conservatives in the Senate is to
withhold our support and to make it better. If they have 218 votes, we
won't get any change."
It's not clear how many House Republicans would ultimately vote "no" on the current version of the bill.
The
conservative backlash also does not reflect reservations among more
moderate members of the party. Health care experts widely agree that the
GOP plan would result in millions losing coverage -- an outcome that
some Republicans are reticent to try to defend to their constituents
back home.
The legislation unveiled Monday
would scrap the individual mandate, replacing it with refundable tax
credits for individuals to purchase health insurance. It would also
restructure Medicaid and defund Planned Parenthood. It seeks to maintain
Obamacare's protections for people with pre-existing conditions, but
would allow insurers to charge higher premiums to individuals whose
coverage has lapsed.
Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has expressed frustration of the effort to tie Planned Parenthood to the health care measure.
"I
don't think that the Planned Parenthood defund should be in the ACA
bill that we're dealing with. Just don't think so," she said Tuesday.
Crafted
through a budget reconciliation process, the GOP Obamacare bill
requires a simple majority to pass in the House and Senate. Assuming
that no Democrat in the House supports the legislation, House Speaker
Paul Ryan can afford to lose around 20 members of his own party.
Senate a major roadblock
In the Senate, where Republicans have a razor-thin margin, just a handful of GOP senators could derail the bill.
Doug
Heye, a senior aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor who was
involved in the GOP's extended and failed efforts in 2014 to craft an
Obamacare replacement bill, said the suggestion that the new GOP
Obamacare bill could be dead on arrival -- was hardly a stretch.
"This
kind of goes back to everything Republicans have tried and failed to do
for the past four years. What is the incentive to vote yes; what is the
punishment for voting no? How do you then get to 218?" said Heye, a CNN
contributor. "When Boehner said the week before last, Republicans never
agreed on health care his entire career, he was right."
Heye was referring to former House Speaker John Boehner's recent prediction that Republicans would not go through with repealing and replacing Obamacare, but rather, "fix" the law, instead.
"In
the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans
never, ever one time agreed on what a health care proposal should look
like," Boehner said. "Not once."
Pressure is mounting fast with a slew of conservative groups coming out against the Obamacare bill.
The
Club for Growth panned the legislation as a "warmed-over substitute for
government-run health care." Heritage Action said there is "no
significant difference between the Affordable Care Act" and what House
GOP leaders have proposed. "That is bad politics and, more importantly,
bad policy," the group's CEO, Michael Needham, said.
Freedom Partners and Americans for Prosperity are also opposed to the bill.
The writers of the GOP health care blueprint dismissed the suggestion that it was a modified version of Obamacare.
"This
is 'Obamacare gone.' This is the first and most important step to
giving relief to Americans from this terrible law," said House Ways and
Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady. "We can act now or we can keep
fiddling around and squander this opportunity to repeal Obamacare."
At
the White House, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price called
the House bill a "work in progress," rather than a final bill backed
fully by the President.
"This is a work in progress and we'll work with the House," Price said.
And Trump himself tweeted that negotiations are possible.
"Our
wonderful new Healthcare Bill is now out for review and negotiation.
ObamaCare is a complete and total disaster - is imploding fast!" he tweeted.
But
after meeting with House Republicans at the White House, Rep. Steve
Scalise, the majority whip, said the President "committed in our meeting
that he is all-in to making sure that this bill gets to his desk."
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