GOP zombie health plan
THE GOP’s latest bill attempting to repeal and replace Obamacare will face a Senate vote next week.
A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Kentucky Republican will push for a vote on the so-called “Graham-Cassidy” health care bill, even though it has so far failed to secure the 50 votes it needs to pass.
With a Sept. 30 deadline for the vote, this will likely be the GOP’s final shot at passing a bill after every other attempt this year narrowly failed.
Once again, Republicans are pushing a bill that would overhaul Obamacare but likely leave major gaps in coverage. And once again, the GOP wants a vote before the bill’s impacts have been fully understood.
The new bill, drafted by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, would dismantle federal health insurance funding and replace it with block grants that each state could use however it sees fits. Graham and Cassidy have pitched the bill as a chance for states to win back power over their health care costs.
But the block grants would only last through 2026, with no plan proposed for what would come next. The bill would also severely restrict federal spending on Medicaid and take away Obamacare’s coverage mandates.
The GOP is sprinting to a vote even before the Congressional Budget Office can complete its analysis of how the bill would affect coverage nationwide. Budget Office estimates of the earlier GOP health care bills found that each one would have deprived more than 20 million Americans of coverage. President Trump, who has berated his own party for its failures on other health care bills, has already given this one his endorsement. “I hope Republican Senators will vote for Graham-Cassidy and fulfill their promise to Repeal & Replace ObamaCare. Money direct to States!” he tweeted Wednesday. He added in another tweet, “Graham-Cassidy Bill is GREAT! Ends Ocare!” House Speaker Paul Ryan said the House would be ready to rubber stamp the bill right after the Senate approves it.
But several Republican senators — the same ones who helped shoot down prior health care bills — are still not persuaded.
“Nothing has changed,” Arizona Sen. John McCain (photo) told Politico.
“If McConnell wants to put it on the floor, that’s up to McConnell. I am the same as I was before.”
Sens. Rand Paul and Susan Collins, who wavered on earlier bills, have indicated that they are opposed to this one, too.
Paul, whom Trump blasted on Twitter as a “a negative force when it comes to fixing healthcare,” mocked Ryan’s certainty that the new bill would survive rushed Senate and House votes.
“The speaker’s been wrong many times before on counting votes,” Paul said on CNN.
As the GOP continues bickering over its Obamacare overhaul, the Democrats have been divided on an entirely different solution: A single-payer health care system.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who pushed single-payer care as a Democratic presidential candidate, introduced a bill this month that would make Medicare-forall the nation’s new health care program.