GOP tries to breathe life into health bill
Skeptics remain as Senate leaders aim for quick revision
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans reconvened behind closed doors Wednesday trying to break the impasse on their health care overhaul but emerged with no apparent strategy for resolving differences by an end-of-week deadline.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky vowed to try again for a vote after the Fourth of July recess, despite having abruptly delayed action this week.
Senators were aiming for a revised bill by Friday, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters, so it could be assessed by the Congressional Budget Office during the break.
But senators remained skeptical after the lengthy lunchtime huddle that appeared to run long on ideas but short on consensus.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
McConnell surprised observers by delaying this week’s expected votes once it became clear he did not have a majority for passage — or possibly to even open the debate.
As many as 10 Republican senators now publicly oppose the bill, and leaders are scrambling to win them over with an estimated $200 billion in savings from the bill that can be applied to their particular state’s needs.
But even with that fund of resources, it is not clear McConnell will be able to satisfactorily improve the legislation, which now threatens to cut 22 million Americans off health insurance by 2026, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. He can afford to lose only two Republican votes in the face of Democratic opposition.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get me to a yes. (Have) to make us an offer we can’t refuse,” Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said on a telephone town hall late Tuesday, according to journalist Jon Ralston, who monitored the call.
Nevertheless, many Republican senators were expected to eventually relent. Sen. John McCain of Arizona said “of course” his support was uncertain because hewants to ease some of the measure’s Medicaid cuts, and Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska told The Omaha World-Herald that the bill was not a full repeal, adding, “Nebraskans are dissatisfied with it and so am I.”
Fresh polling Wednesday showed paltry support for the Republican approach to overhauling the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which has enjoyed a surge in popularity now that Republicans are closer than ever to repealing it. A USA Today poll put approval of the Senate GOP bill at 12 percent.
Republicans, though, are under enormous pressure from their most conservative supporters — and big dollar donors, including the powerful Koch network — to deliver on their promise to end Obamacare.
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, suggested that President Donald Trump convene all 100 senators at the president’s guest house — much the way former President Barack Obama did— to see how they might be able to work together to improve, rather than repeal, the Affordable Care Act.
“I’d make my friends on the Republican side and President Trump an offer: Let’s turn over a new leaf. Let’s start over,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Trump dismissed Schumer’s proposal — “He just doesn’t seem like a serious person,” the president said — and instead promised his own “big surprise” on health care.
“Health care is working along very well,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We could have a big surprise, with a great health care package.”
Asked what he meant by a big surprise, Trump simply repeated: “A great, great surprise.”
The Republican Senate bill, like its counterpart passed by House Republicans, does not fully gut Obamacare but rescinds the new taxes imposed on highincome individuals and health care companies to pay for expanding coverage through Medicaid and subsidies for private insurance on the ACA marketplace.
Senators said the private talks Wednesday focused mainly on changes to the Obamacare marketplace that could bring down the cost of insurance premiums.
One idea from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to allow insurers to offer policies that do not meet the Obamacare benchmarks for what insurance needs to cover, received mixed reaction, senators said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician, warned that such changes would keep insurance costs high.
McConnell showed no signs of abandoning his push for the legislation.
“We’ll continue working so we can bring legislation to the floor for debate and ultimately a vote,” he said as the Senate convened Wednesday.
While this week’s retreat on a measure McConnell wrote behind closed doors dented his reputation as a consummate legislative seer, no one was counting him out.
Having seen the House approve its health care package after an earlier version collapsed, Democrats were far froma victory dance.
“I expect to see buyouts and bailouts, backroom deals and kickbacks to individual senators to try and buy their vote,” Schumer said. “What I don’t expect to see, yet, is a dramatic rethink of the core” of the bill.