Michael Joe Murphy

Conversation Starter

There’s a scramble in the U.S. Senate over Republicans’ healthcare overhaul. As senators inch toward a vote, now delayed until after the July 4 recess, the focus is on substance and last-minute changes that would sway any Republicans who have announced they might oppose the bill.

Republicans have pledged for seven years to repeal former President Obama's landmark health-reform law. In May, the U.S. House Representatives narrowly approved a bill that would end the Affordable Health Care Act, known as Obamacare.

Yet when the Senate leaders unveiled their version last week, some conservative and moderate Republican members were quick to pounce on elements they don’t like. Such criticism cast doubts over whether the Senate bill can win passage.

The picture was clouded further this week when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the Senate bill that projected it would increase by the number of Americans without health coverage by 22 million over the next decade, and push medical costs higher for millions of other poor and sick Americans. Supporters of the bill, including the White House, questioned the reliability of the CBO projections.

As haggling and horse-trading over the Senate health-care bill consumes Washington, we sought out two opinion leaders about health reform to sort through the merits and deficiencies of the Senate bill:

Joel Zinberg, a surgeon and a lawyer, is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public-policy research institute.

Neera Tanden is president of the Center for American Progress, a progressive public-policy research and advocacy organization.

TO LEARN MORE

American Enterprise Institute: goo.gl/2ekshD

Center for American Progress: goo.gl/cWaiye