CBO estimate on House health bill coming soon
The Congressional Budget Office is planning to release the week of May 22 an assessment of how the health-care legislation that the House just passed will impact federal spending.
In a blog post Wednesday, the CBO said its staff and Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation expect to issue the cost estimates early that week. The notice did not say whether the analysis of the Republicans’ Affordable Health Care Act will include a forecast of how the bill would affect the number of Americans with health insurance, and a spokeswoman for the office said she did not have that information.
The pending estimates are significant because the House GOP leadership rushed through a May 4 vote on the legislation — which polarized even factions within the chamber’s Republican conference — without waiting for the CBO’s budget ana- lysts to size up its fiscal and insurance coverage impact.
The bill, which squeaked through the House on a vote of 217 to 213, now goes to the Senate. That chamber’s parliamentarian is responsible for deciding which parts of the legislation fit within criteria so it can be considered through a special budget “reconciliation” process for spending matters, which would make it easier for Republicans to pass. The parliamentarian is not allowed to begin that review without the CBO’s analysis.
In March, the CBO looked at the original version of the House bill, which is intended to dismantle major aspects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Its initial estimates triggered a political firestorm that especially singed moderate House Republicans, who faced widespread complaints from their constituents.
According to those estimates, House Republicans’ original bill would have left 24 million more Americans uninsured by 2026. That would have more than reversed the coverage gains that the ACA has made through new insurance marketplaces for people who cannot get affordable health benefits at work, as well as through an expansion of Medicaid.
The analysis also forecast that the House bill would have lowered the federal deficit during the decade by $337 billion, mainly by spending less on Medicaid and subsidies for most people buying health plans through the ACA marketplaces.
Since that forecast, the legislation was altered in several ways as House GOP leaders struggled to gather enough votes for it to pass.
The current bill would allow states to jettison two of the ACA’s consumer protections: a rule forbidding insurers to charge customers with pre-existing medical conditions more than other individuals, and a rule that requires insurers to include specific “essential health benefits” in all plans sold to individuals and small businesses. WASHINGTON — In a surpri sing vic tor y for President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy, the Senate vo te d Wednesday to uphold an Obama-era climate change regulation to control the release of methane from oil and gas wells on public land.
Senators voted 51-49 to block consideration of a resolution to repeal the 2016 Interior Department rule to curb emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming greenhouse gas. Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, all Republicans who have expressed concern about climate change and backed legislation to tackle the issue, broke with their part y to join Democrats and defeat the resolution.
The vote also marked the first, and probably the only, defeat of a stream of resolutions over the last four months — pursued through the once-obscure Congressional Review Act — to unwind regulations approved late in the Obama administration.
“People of America and people of t he world c a n breathe a sigh of relief,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader.
In anticipation of Republican defections, President Donald Trump sent Vice President Mike Pence to the Senate floor to break a tie vote. But with three members of his own party breaking away, Pence could do nothing.
“We were surprised and thrilled to win on this,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of the League o f C o n s e r v a t i o n Vo t e r s , which, a l ong wit h ot her environmental groups, has been lobbying Republicans for weeks to vote against the repeal of the methane rule.
While Collins and Graham had publicly announced their opposition to the measure, McCain’s vote was a surprise.
It came as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was advancing the nomination of trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer to be the U.S. trade representative. Lighthizer harshly criticized McCain during the senator’s 2008 presidential campaign, saying his free-trade views were not in the best traditions of American conservatism. McCain has since sought to block Lighthizer’s nomination, objecting to a waiver granted to him to skirt the president’s prohibition on lobbyists serving in his Cabinet.
McCain also was the tar- get of significant lobbying on the issue. Last week, a group of retired generals from the liberal Vet Voice Foundation sent a letter to all senators, framing the rollback of the methane regulation as a national security threat. The group said the venting of the emissions from fuel wells could diminish the natural gas supply. McCain, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has spoken of climate change and the energy supply as a national security issue.
Oil-state Republican lawmakers vowed to push Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to act on his own.
“I c al l on I nter i or Secretary Zinke to withdraw the rule immediately,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “If left in place, this regulation will only discourage energy production, job creation and economic opportunity across the West.”