GOP leaders plan Tuesday health vote
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders pushed toward a Senate vote next Tuesday on their health care bill. Their challenge was further complicated by the ailing GOP Sen. John McCain’s potential absence and new figures saying the number of uninsured Americans would rise.
The White House and GOP leaders fished Thursday for ways to win over recalcitrant senators, including an administration proposal to let states use Medicaid funds to help people buy their own private health insurance. But there were no indications they’d ensured the votes needed to start debating the repeal and replacement of President Barack Obama’s health care law.
“Dealing with this issue is what’s right for the country,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He added, “It was certainly never going to be easy, but we’ve come a long way and I look forward to continuing our work together to finally bring relief.”
As leaders tested revisions that might attract GOP votes, others criticized the process.
“It’s almost becoming a bidding process — let’s throw $50 billion here, let’s throw $100 billion there,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “It’s making me uncomfortable right now. It’s beginning to feel a lot like how Obamacare came together.”
The Congressional Budget Office said McConnell’s latest bill would produce 22 million additional uninsured people by 2026 and drive up premiums for many older Americans. Congress’ fiscal analyst also said it would boost typical deductibles — the money people must pay before insurers cover costs — for single people to $13,000 that year, well above the $5,000 they’d be expected to pay under Obama’s statute.
That outlook resembled one the office released last month on McConnell’s initial bill, which the leader had to withdraw.
Thursday’s report seemed unlikely to do much better to help win over moderate Republicans upset over millions of voters losing coverage and cuts in Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. These included Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Ohio’s Rob Portman and West Virginian Shelley Moore Capito.
The GOP’s fissures have changed little for months.
Conservatives like Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Texas’ Ted Cruz want to loosen Obama’s requirements that insurers cover numerous services and cap customers’ costs, and some want to cut spending for Medicaid and other programs. Conservative Rand Paul, R-Ky., is most interested in simply repealing the 2010 law. Moderates want to ease the spending reductions and leave consumer protections in place.
“There’s a handful of folks who clearly have significant reservations” about backing the bill, said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. “But they haven’t said no. They haven’t said yes either.”
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., a member of the Senate leadership, said a vote was expected Tuesday afternoon. But senators suggested that might change with the possible long-term absence of McCain, the 80-year-old Arizonan who announced Wednesday he is battling an aggressive brain cancer and was home undergoing treatment.
With a slender 52-48 majority and adamant Democratic opposition, McConnell has been unable to muster the 50 GOP votes he’d need to approve his party’s health care overhaul. Vice President Mike Pence would cast the tiebreaking vote. Without McCain, the bill would fall if just two Republicans vote against it, and more than that have said they’re ready to do so.