◆ Congress takes
Early morning vote gives GOP easy path to make changes
its first steps toward killing Obamacare. And, under Senate rules, Republicans can act without securing cooperation from Democrats, who have vowed to block major changes to the Affordable Care Act.
WASHINGTON — Congress took its first steps toward reversing President Obama’s health care reforms Thursday, but Republican leaders are coming under intense pressure from rank-and-file lawmakers to detail exactly how their “repeal and replace” plans will play out before moving any further.
The Senate voted early Thursday morning on a measure that would allow the use of the special budget reconciliation process to pass health care legislation. That would allow Republicans to act without securing cooperation from Democrats, who have vowed to block major changes to the Affordable Care Act.
The measure is set for a House vote Friday, but lawmakers across the GOP’s ideological divides have sounded anxious notes about moving forward with Obamacare’s repeal without firm plans for its replacement.
“We just want more specifics,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus said Wednesday. “We need to know what we’re going to replace it with.”
Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, said members of that caucus have “serious reservations” about starting the process without replacement plans spelled out. “We’d like to have this conversation prior to the repeal vote,” he said.
Neither group has taken a binding position against the procedural measure that will be voted for on Friday. But their wariness has forced House GOP leaders to reassure jittery members that they will not move precipitously or in a way that would open Republicans to charges that they threw the health care system into chaos by repealing without fully replacing Obamacare.
“This will be a thoughtful, step-by-step process,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday. “We’re not going to swap one 2,700-page monstrosity for another. ... We’re going to do this the right way.”
The complication, however, has been Presidentelect Donald Trump, who this week made several sweeping statements about the timing and substance of his health-care plans.
Replacement of Obamacare, he said at a Wednesday news conference, would happen “essentially simultaneously” as its repeal and would be “far less expensive and far better.” In a New York Times interview published Tuesday, Trump indicated that legislation could come together within weeks.
But several key lawmakers involved in drafting the health care legislation indicated that is an overly ambitious timeline. Democrats took more than a year to pass the Affordable Care Act.
“I guess it depends on how you define ‘simultaneous,’ ” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, when asked Wednesday about Trump’s comments.
Rep. Greg Walden, ROre., chairman of the House Energy Committee, said, “There’s a lot of different timelines floating around.”
“I think there’s a lot of energy for getting on with both” repeal and replacement, he said. “The question is, what are the formalities for that? We want to have a due process here; we want to have a transparent process. We want to have a full legislative process.”
Another wild card is Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. Trump suggested Wednesday that Price would play a key role in shaping the Obamacare replacement strategy.
“As soon as our secretary is approved and gets into the office, we’ll be filing a plan,” he said. It was unclear whether he meant a legislative plan, or a plan for repealing or modifying Obamacare-related regulations.