Democrats slow down Senate business to protest GOP health care bill secrecy

WASHINGTON — Senators settled in Monday as Democrats plan to slow-walk all action until Republicans relent on their secret health care negotiations and debate their Obamacare replacement in public.

Democrats plan to object to even the most routine procedural requests and use the floor time instead to berate Republicans for drafting the health care bill behind closed doors.

The tactic will not necessarily stall the Senate. The week’s schedule is not especially busy. But it will highlight the secrecy around the health care debate as Republicans rush to finish the bill before their Fourth of July recess.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened the Senate with no mention of when the GOP would unveil its bill or bring it to a vote.

But many expect the strategic GOP leader will push it swiftly to the floor, nudging reluctant Republicans to vote.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chided Republicans for hiding the legislation that will likely result in millions of Americans losing their health care coverage.

“They’re ashamed of it, plain and simple,” Schumer said. “No wonder they don’t want to show anyone the bill.”

Democrats say that they spent many hours in open-session public committee hearings in 2009 drafting the legislation that would become the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The Senate’s GOP plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act is expected to phase out Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid and reduce federal subsidies for buying insurance on the private market.

Weeks in the making during private lunch-time meetings, the Senate bill is likely to loosen Obamacare’s provisions to protect coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The Obamacare replacement passed by the House last month includes deep cuts to Medicaid and other health expenditures. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it would cause 23 million more Americans to be without health insurance by 2016.