House conducts hearing on repeal of Obamacare,
GOP leaders dismiss critics as AMA, AARP reject measure
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders worked frantically Wednesday to salvage their health care overhaul, warning naysayers in the party to join or risk being blamed for breaking the GOP’s promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., insisted President Donald Trump was on their side and he sharpened his tone to push reluctant Republicans to embrace “what we’ve all been dreaming about,” rather than doom the bill over their differences.
Ryan said he had “no doubt” the bill would pass, brushing off discontent from opponents as the “inevitable growing pains” of tackling a difficult policy now that Republicans control the White House as well as Congress.
“This is the choice we face: Are we going to stay with Obamacare and ride out the status quo?” Ryan said. “Or are we going to do what we said we’d do?”
Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are trying to build momentum to fast-track the legislation past a groundswell of opposition from Democrats, small-government conservatives, moderate Republicans and health care groups who have created an unlikely coalition against it.
The question now is whether Trump will put the power of the White House behind the bill, the American Health Care Act.
Republicans are counting on Trump to begin strongarming lawmakers. The president is expected to call resistant Republicans.
“President Trump is very confident about the passage,” said Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway on Fox.
Implicit in such comments are fears that lawmakers could face the wrath of the White House or worse, efforts to unseat them at the next election.
So far, though, conservative Republicans do not appear moved by the White House outreach and have been emboldened by outside groups, including the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity, that are pouring money into ad campaigns against the bill.
Opponents want to make changes to the bill, but substantive amendments seem unlikely under the condensed schedule and strict procedural rules that will allow the legislation to be approved in the House and Senate with a simple majority vote.
In fact, two House committees were on track to approve the legislation after grueling daylong hearings on Wednesday.
Votes on the amendments fell along party lines in both hearings — one at the Energy and Commerce Committee and one at the Ways and Means Committee.
Nearly all of the amendments were offered by Democrats, as Republicans stuck together to block them.
Democrats have shown almost no interest in helping Republicans pass the bill, arguing it will dump millions of Americans off their health insurance plans and shift costs to consumers and states.
The hearings got off to a contentious start as Democratic lawmakers complained Republicans were rushing the process and sought delays to allow more time to review the legislation.
“What’s the rush?” asked Frank Pallone, D-N.J., as Democrats at the Energy and Commerce panel scheduled more than 100 amendments.
At the Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax policy, Democrats demanded a review of Trump’s tax returns to see if his business interests would benefit from the bill’s repeal of various Obamacare taxes.
Democrats took particular aim at a provision in the bill that will lift the $500,000 deduction cap on insurance executive pay to $1 million, calling it a Robin Hood-like move that will transfer revenue the federal government had been using to provide health care to the needy and send it back to corporations.
Meanwhile, many conservative Republicans complained the bill preserves too many features of Obamacare.
And while the Republican-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce backed the bill, a growing number of leading health care groups representing patients, physicians and hospitals have come out against the House plan.
“We ask Congress to protect our patients, and find ways to maintain coverage for as many Americans as possible,” American Hospital Association President Richard Pollack said in a letter to House Republicans.
Seven groups representing the nation’s hospitals, health systems and medical colleges collectively added their “significant concerns” to the growing opposition, focusing on the prospect of sharply lower numbers of insured Americans if the Republicans’ plans were to become law.
Separately, the American Medical Association, a powerful lobbying group for physicians, rejected the bill for the same reason.
The list of organizations opposing the measure has grown quickly since the bill was unveiled Monday. The AARP came out against it Tuesday.