Bipartisan governors’ group opposes Obamacare scuttling
But that might not be enough to kill block-grant rewrite.
The suddenly WASHINGTON — resurgent Republican effort to undo the Affordable Care Act was dealt a major blow Tuesday when a bipartisan group of governors came out against a proposal gaining steam in the Senate.
But it was unclear whether it would ultimately derail the attempt, as key Republican senators, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said they had yet to make up their minds. And at the same time, a bipartisan attempt to shore up the Obama-era health law ground to a halt.
The collective criticism from 10 governors came as Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to rally support for the bill, which is sponsored by GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Dean Heller of Nevada and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
The governors in their letters said, “We ask you not to consider the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson amendment and renew support for bipartisan efforts to make health care more available and affordable for all Americans,”
They added that they prefer a bipartisan push to stabilize the insurance marketplaces that Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., have been negotiating. But Alexander, who chairs the Senate’s health committee and had been working with top committee Democrat Patty Murray, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that they “have not found the necessary consensus among Republicans and Democrats.”
Murray disputed that, saying GOP leaders had “decided to freeze this bipartisan approach.” But even if they had concurred on a limited short-term plan to stabilize insurance premiums, passage through the House or the Senate would have been an uphill struggle.
The governors who signed the letter are particularly notable, since some are from states represented by Republican senators who are weighing whether to back the bill. Among them: Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent who holds some sway over Murkowski. She opposed a previous Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Nevertheless, Murkowski said Tuesday afternoon that she was still weighing her options.
“If it can be shown that Alaska is not going to be disadvantaged, you gain additional flexibility, then I can go back to Alaskans and I can say, ‘OK, let’s walk through this together.’ That’s where it could be different,” she said.
But Murkowski, who has been in close touch with Walker, said she didn’t yet have the data to make that determination.
Alaska’s other Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, said he was still mulling whether to support the bill.
On Tuesday, Pence traveled from New York, where he was attending the annual U.N. General Assembly, to Washington with Graham, in a sign of the White House’s visible support for the proposal.
“My message today is I want to make sure that members of the Senate know the president and our entire administration supports Graham-Cassidy,” Pence told reporters on the flight down. “We think the American people need this.”
The bill would give states control over billions in federal health-care spending and enact deep cuts to Medicaid.
The Medicaid cuts are a major source of concern to the governors, both in terms of imposing a per-capita cap on what states would receive as well as restrictions on how they could spend any federal aid on their expanded Medicaid populations.
The fact that the bill would also bar states from taxing health care providers in order the fund their Medicaid programs posed a problem for several governors.