GOP leader says he’ll rework health bill, but offers Plan B

GLASGOW, KY. » Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he plans to produce a fresh bill in about a week scuttling and replacing much of President Barack Obama’s health care law. But he’s also acknowledging a Plan B if that effort continues to flounder.

“If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur,” McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday. It was one of his most explicit concessions that a top priority for President Donald Trump and the entire GOP, erasing much of Obama’s landmark 2010 statute, might fall short.

He provided no details during remarks he made at a Rotary Club lunch in a deep-red, conservative rural area of southern Kentucky.

Previously, other Republicans have said that if their broad drive to dismantle much of Obama’s law struggled, a smaller bill with quick help for insurers and consumers might be needed. They’ve said it could include provisions continuing federal payments to insurers that help them contain costs for some low earners and inducements to keep healthy people buying policies — a step that helps curb premiums.

McConnell’s comments suggested that to show progress on health care, Republicans controlling the White House and Congress might have to negotiate with Democrats. While the current, wide-ranging GOP health care bill has procedural protections against a Democratic Senate filibuster, a subsequent, narrower measure wouldn’t and would take 60 votes to pass. McConnell has said he wants the current bill to pass.

The measure still in play would fail if just three of the 52 Republicans vote no, since all Democrats oppose it. McConnell was forced to cancel a vote on the measure last week after far more Republicans than that objected, and he’s been spending the Independence Day recess studying possible changes that might win over GOP dissidents.

“We have an obligation to the American people to try and improve what we currently have. What we do know is the status quo is not sustainable,” he said.

In a written statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it encouraging that McConnell had “opened the door to bipartisan solutions.” He said the focus should be on continuing the federal payments to insurers, which Trump has threatened to halt.

Schumer has repeatedly said Democrats won’t negotiate until Republicans abandon their repeal effort.