No leaving town until it’s done
Trump demands healthcare solution
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has taken Senate Republicans to task for failing to reach a deal on overhauling Obamacare, as a new report showed 32 million Americans would lose health insurance if senators opted to repeal the law without a replacement.
Trump gathered 49 Republican senators yesterday for a White House lunch after a Bill to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act collapsed this week amid dissent from a handful of the party’s conservatives and moderates.
After Trump’s exhortation to keep trying, party members met Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price behind closed doors to try to come together on a major Republican promise of the past seven years — undoing former Democratic president Barack Obama’s signature legislation, popularly known as Obamacare.
Trump had taken a handsoff approach to the healthcare debate last week and suggested on Wednesday he was fine with letting Obamacare fail. Then yesterday he switched course and demanded senators stay in Washington through their planned August recess until they find common ground on healthcare.
‘‘We can repeal, but we should repeal and replace, and we shouldn’t leave town until this is complete,’’ Trump said at the meeting.
Trump made the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, which he has called a ‘‘disaster’’, a central promise of his 2016 campaign.
Even with Trump’s new push, Republican leaders in the Senate face a difficult task getting moderates and conservatives to agree on an overhaul that can pass.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had planned to hold a straight repeal vote next week, but several Republican senators have already said they oppose that approach.
Senator John McCain’s absence due to health issues has added to McConnell’s votecounting troubles. McCain, the Republicans’ 2008 presidential nominee, has a brain tumour and his office said he was reviewing treatment options that might include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.
Leaving the closeddoor meeting, where senators had sent their staff away in order to talk frankly, Senator John Kennedy said attendees had paused to pray for McCain. Kennedy said everyone was negotiating in ‘‘good faith’’, but he did not know if they would reach agreement.
Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative who has proposed letting insurers offer cheaper barebones plans that do not comply with Obamacare regulations, said: ‘‘We still have some issues that divide us.’’
Almost all other senators rushed off after the meeting without comment.
Thirtytwo million Americans would lose their health insurance by 2026 if Obamacare was scrapped without an alternative in place, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday, and 17 million would become uninsured next year alone. At the same time, premiums on individual insurance plans would rise 25% next year and double by 2026.
The CBO’s estimates were unchanged from a previous report that assessed the impact of a 2015 Bill to repeal Obamacare that passed the House of Representatives and Senate and was vetoed by Obama.
Democrats were swift to highlight the CBO’s assessment, while Republicans remained silent.
Insurers and hospitals have lobbied against straight repeal, saying the limbo would increase uncertainty and their costs.
‘‘CBO projects half the country would have no insurers in the individual market by 2020 under the new repeal Bill. That’s a true death spiral,’’ tweeted Larry Levitt, vicepresident at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a healthcare research group.—