Health care bill ‘getting close’
Repeal-only also remains option, White House official says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is making a weekend push to get a Republican Senate bill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law “across the finish line,” Trump’s top legislative aide said Sunday, maintaining that a repeal-only option also remained in play if Republicans can’t reach agreement.
Marc Short, the White House’s legislative director, said Trump was making calls to wavering senators and insisted they were “getting close” on passing a bill.
But Short said Trump continues to believe that repeal-only legislation should be considered after raising the possibility Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., has dismissed that suggestion and said he intended to proceed with legislation being negotiated over the July 4 recess.
“We hope when we come back, the week after recess, we’ll have a vote,” Short said. But he added: “If the replacement part is too difficult for Republicans to get together, then let’s go back and take care of the first step of repeal.”
Republicans returned to their home districts late last week, bracing for a flood of phone calls, emails and television advertising from both conservative and liberal groups.
Sen. Bill Cassidy held a town hall meeting Friday to talk about flood recovery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital city, but audience members angry over the GOP health care bill chanted over Cassidy’s answers and criticized the secretive legislative process.
“I wish we weren’t doing it one party,” Cassidy said Sunday, adding he remains undecided on how he will vote.
Republican conservatives complain that Mcconnell’s bill does not go far enough in repealing Obama’s health care law while moderates criticize it as overly harsh in kicking people off insurance rolls, shrinking the Medicaid safety net and increasing premiums for older Americans.
Short said the White House remained hopeful after Senate Republicans submitted two versions of the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring over the weeklong recess. Texas’ Sen. Ted Cruz is pushing a conservative version that aims to reduce costs by giving states greater flexibility to create separate higher-risk pools. The other seeks to bolster health care subsidies for lower-income people, perhaps by preserving a tax boost on high earners.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said talks over the Senate bill were focusing on ways to address the issue of Medicaid coverage so that “nobody falls through the cracks,” combating the opioid crisis, and giving families more choice in selecting their insurance plan.