GRIN REAPER
Trump cheers as House votes to strip 24M of Bamcare
WASHINGTON — A smiling President Trump hosted a celebration at the White House on Thursday after House Republicans narrowly passed a bill to repeal and replace significant parts of Obamacare.
Calling it “an unbelievable victory,” Trump saluted the revised version of a bill recently declared dead as “a great plan, and I think it will get even better.”
“Make no mistake: This is a repeal and replace of Obamacare,” he said.
The bill still has to make it through the Senate, where its prospects are shaky at best — but the passage was a major victory for Trump, who seemed happily surprised at his success.
At one point during the celebratory press conference in the Rose Garden, he turned to the House Republicans who’d gathered with him after the vote and exclaimed, “Hey, I’m President! I’m President! Can you believe it?!”
House GOP leaders managed to squeak through the legislation by 217 to 213 on their second try in bringing it to the floor, pushing through a bill that could cause 24 million people to lose insurance coverage, raise prices on older Americans and potentially hurt some people with preexisting conditions. And they passed it so soon after making changes that many members weren’t sure exactly what was in it.
“We can continue with the status quo, or we can put this collapsing law behind us, end this failed experiment,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on the House floor Thursday afternoon just before the vote. “A lot of us had to wait seven years to cast this vote. Many of us are here because we pledged to cast this very vote.”
Republicans passed the legislation over the objections of most major professional and interest groups. The American Medical Association said the bill would do “serious harm to patients and the health care delivery system,” while the AARP warned that the last-minute changes that let Republicans win enough votes to ram the legislation through “make a bad bill even worse.”
Gov. Cuomo said that if the bill becomes law it would cost New York billions bill that looks anything like what of dollars, and Mayor de Blasio the House approved. On top of predicted more than 1 million that, in order to pass the bill, GOP city residents could lose their leaders had to twist the arms of a health coverage. number of swing-district members
But passing the legislation is a whose votes could come back to major relief for House Republican haunt them in the 2018 midterm leaders, who had struggled for elections. months to get enough of their members Democrats chanted, “Na na na on the same page. na, hey hey hey, goodbye” and
“As much as we’ve come up waved at vulnerable Republicans with a really incredible health care as the vote passed. plan, this has brought the Republican “This is really bad for the country,” Party together,” Trump declared House Minority Leader during his speech. “It’s Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, arguing going to be an unbelievable victory the only silver lining would be when we get it through the Senate.” its electoral impact.
But House passage could prove “They will find out that their a pyrrhic victory, as a number of congressperson said it’s OK to take Senate Republicans have indicated health care away from 24 million there’s no chance they’ll pass a people, and this could mean you,” she warned Republicans.
Former Vice President Joe Biden lamented the potential loss of his boss’ legacy-defining legislation.
“Millions of Americans will lose coverage. Up to the Senate now. Hoping for courage to return,” he tweeted. “Day of shame in Congress. Protections for pre-existing conditions, mental health, maternity care, addiction services — all gone.”
As Republicans hustled out of the House down the Capitol steps to buses waiting to take them to the White House, they were greeted by hundreds of protesters who chanted “shame” and “2018.”
The passage comes after an embarrassing setback in late March, when Republicans had to cancel a vote due to a lack of support, and after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found the plan would leave over 20 million people without insurance.
It was once again rushed
through this time with last-minute changes to win over reluctant members, and pushed to the floor so House Republicans could punt the issue to the Senate ahead of a week-plus recess that leaders worried could kill recent momentum.
Democrats chanted “read the bill” and “where’s the score?” as Ryan introduced the legislation.
The biggest recent tweaks include a provision to win over hardline conservatives that lets states apply for waivers so that insurers in their states don’t have to cover “essential health benefits” like hospital stays and maternity care — and can charge more for people with pre-existing conditions who don’t have continuous health coverage.
Republicans argue that a lastminute injection of $8 billion over five years to help states create “high-risk pools” for sicker, older Americans who need to buy health insurance will help alleviate that problem, but experts say that’s not nearly enough money if a number of states opt to go that route.
After slamming Democrats in 2010 for rushing through an Obamacare bill that they took 17 months to pass after full committee hearings, House Republican leaders shrugged off concerns that they’re passing theirs without taking the time to actually know what’s in it.
They also voted on the legislation without waiting for the CBO to analyze the latest version of the bill to see how it might affect millions of people. The latest changes — creating an essential health benefits waiver and money for high-risk pools — aren’t scored.
“It’s impossible to score,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed of the CBO analysis, because the bill has “too many moving parts.”
But the CBO told Democrats that a new score would be calculated by sometime next week.
“The bill, it was kind of haphazardly constructed and hastily considered by the House, certainly over the last couple days,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), the head of the moderate Tuesday Group and a “no” vote, told the Daily News. “Regular order was set aside for a bill that will go absolutely nowhere in the Senate.”