• U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., confident health care bill will pass,
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans took their ball but they didn’t go home. They boarded a bus and headed to the White House to lick their wounds and regroup after their health care overhaul bill was pulled from the Senate schedule Tuesday.
The GOP, which controls the Senate, couldn’t afford to lose more than two Republican votes. It stood to lose at least five when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced that this week’s planned vote would be delayed.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, one of 13 senators who worked on the bill, isn’t giving up.
“Introduction of the draft bill was just the beginning of the process. There will be additional changes based on feedback from senators and the public before there is a final product ready for a vote,” Mr. Toomey, R-Pa., said in a written statement Tuesday afternoon.
“My hope is Republican senators can quickly come together on legislation to fulfill our promise to repeal and replace Obamacare with a system that puts families in charge of their health care and restores access to affordable coverage,” he said.
But Republicans who fought against the bill, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said GOP support isn’t enough to produce meaningful change. Republicans and Democrats need to get together to find a solution that stems the growth of health care costs without sacrificing coverage, he said.
“We have a health care civil war going on,” he told reporters Tuesday at the National Press Club.
He called the Senate plan “unacceptable” for its lack of resources, its cuts to Medicaid, its tax breaks for the wealthy, and its failure to do enough to preserve coverage for pre-existing conditions. He pointed to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate Monday that passage would result in 22 million people losing coverage.
Mr. Toomey said the estimate can’t be trusted because it’s based on “dubious assumptions.”
The GOP’s Better Care Reconciliation Act is imperfect, too, he acknowledged. “But it is a positive step toward repairing the damages caused by Obamacare and putting Medicaid on a sustainable fiscal path,” he said.
In the end it was too flawed to win the support even of one of its drafters. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said he wouldn’t vote for it because of concerns about how its restructuring of Medicaid would affect drug treatment programs.
“For months, I have engaged with my colleagues on solutions that I believe are necessary to ensure that we improve our health care system and better combat this opioid epidemic. Unfortunately, the Senate draft falls short,” he said in a written statement.
But he said he isn’t giving up on finding a way to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Earlier Tuesday, about 150 people rallied outside Mr. Toomey’s Pittsburgh office, hoping to pressure him to oppose the bill he helped to write.
“We are all here because our health care is in jeopardy,” rally organizer Beth Juozitis told the crowd on Grant Street. “We all know we will all be impacted if the ACA is replaced by Trumpcare.”
After the rally, Sen. Toomey’s office issued a statement that said:
“Sen. Toomey is always open to the perspective of any of his colleagues, constituents and the groups that represent them who want to make constructive progress on ensuring Pennsylvanians once again have access to affordable, quality coverage.”