Senate may chart own course on health care

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans wasted no time Friday showing they have little use for the House bill to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act amid fears among Americans that people already sick won’t be able to get affordable insurance.

“I’m going to read the House bill, find out what it costs and where I find good ideas there … we’ll borrow them. But basically we’re writing our own bill,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate health committee, said.

“At this point, there seem to be more questions than answers about its consequences,” said moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, whose vote may prove one of the hardest to get for President Donald Trump and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said over Twitter: “A bill — finalized yesterday, has not been scored, amendments not allowed, and 3 hours final debate — should be viewed with caution.”

“I don’t think anyone in the Senate is going to be bullied into artificial benchmarks or timelines,” said Josh Holmes, a GOP consultant and former chief of staff to McConnell. “It will be a very different process that will look very different from the one that we just saw unfolding in the House.”

McConnell plans to move forward under special procedures that allow legislation to pass with a simple majority vote, instead of the 60 usually required for major bills in the Senate. That means he will only need Republican votes, which is all he can rely on anyway since Democrats are refusing to participate in dismantling Obama’s law. But under complicated Senate rules, it also limits what can go into the legislation.

And with only a slim 52-48 majority, McConnell can lose only two senators from his sometimes fractious caucus.

The House bill, passed 217-213, would end the health-care law’s fines on people who don’t purchase policies and erase its taxes on health-industry businesses and higher-earning people. It would dilute consumerfriendly insurance coverage requirements, like letting states permit insurers to charge higher premiums for customers with pre-existing medical conditions.

The measure also would water down the subsidies that help consumers afford health insurance, and it would cut Medicaid, including ending extra federal payments to 31 states — including Ohio — that expanded the program to cover more people.