Senate GOP plans secret health care debate

Process does not guarantee hearings

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders are starting what’s shaping up to be a secretive process to write their version of an Obamacare overhaul — even after some GOP senators complained that the House devised sweeping health care legislation behind closed doors.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky held a private meeting Tuesday of an all-male group of GOP senators who will help shape the chamber’s own version of an Affordable Care Act replacement. Among other changes, they’ll probably curb the House bill’s deep cuts to Medicaid and bolster protections for insurance customers who are older, poor or have pre-existing health conditions.

There’s already talk of sending the new measure directly to a vote in the full Senate without committee hearings — if leaders can gather the 51 Republican votes needed to muscle it through.

“Sometimes it’s best to just put it on the floor,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah, who will decide later whether to involve his panel or hold public hearings, said before the meeting.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate health committee, insisted his panel already has held hearings about Obamacare’s limitations. The Senate needs to move quickly, he told reporters.

“We have a sense of urgency about the millions of Americans in the individual market ... many of whom are seeing their premiums go through the roof,” Alexander said.

Some Senate Republicans have complained that even though House Republicans considered their bill in open committee meetings, there were no public hearings to hear outside views and only a few House members were allowed to offer amendments before the chamber passed the bill last week.

“A bill — finalized yesterday, has not been scored, amendments not allowed, and 3 hours final debate — should be viewed with caution,” GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina wrote on Twitter last week.

“Everybody ought to be at the table,” Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, was quoted as saying by the Kansas City Star last week. “I want the committees of jurisdiction to hold hearings, bring the experts who know about health care from across the country, bring citizens to tell us their stories. Then I want every senator, all 100 of us, to have the chance to offer amendments, make suggestions, take votes.”

The Senate process will give senators a chance to offer dozens of amendments when the bill reaches the floor, but hearings aren’t guaranteed.