Medicaid jolt
Senate health bill to cap cash, ax mandates: report
THE SENATE version of the GOP’s vast health care reform bill — scheduled to be unveiled Thursday morning — will reportedly propose remaking Medicaid to provide a fixed amount of money for each person on its rolls.
The bill, which has been crafted behind closed doors by GOP Senate leaders, would also scrap Obamacare’s individual mandate and employer mandate and would propose cutting funding for Planned Parenthood for at least one year, Politico reported.
The text of the bill, which Republican leaders are scheduled to publicly reveal Thursday at 9:30 a.m., is still likely to change before then, as lawmakers continue to revise its language.
But as of Wednesday night, the bill contained an Obamacare waiver to states that would allow them to avoid insurance requirements, including the obligation to have an exchange and the rules for what benefits insurance companies must cover, Politico reported.
The plan, however, would not allow states to waive requirements under Obamacare for insurance companies to accept every person seeking insurance — a waiver that was allowed in the House version of the bill.
When it comes to Medicaid, the bill would reshape the entitlement program so that any given person receives a specific amount of money, instead of an open-ended amount.
Like the House version, the bill will propose cutting the additional Medicaid spending under Obamacare beginning in 2020. States, however, will still be able to expand Medicaid spending through 2019, the report said.
The bill would also provide health care tax credits linked to people’s incomes — not their ages, like the House measure — and would provide billions for a fund for states to keep insurers from fleeing their markets.
The bill, which aides said is certain to change before Thursday morning, has been crafted in secret by 13 Republican senators, who have been sharing general outlines of their plans and negotiating in private with the other members of their GOP caucus. Republican leaders have outright refused to publicly discuss any details of the plan, leading Democrats to blast them for their secrecy.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to push for a vote next week on the legislation, before the July 4 congressional recess.
But that rushed timeline prompted Republicans to join Democrats in criticizing their colleagues Wednesday, with many saying they’d want more time to review such critical legislation.
“I’ve made leadership well aware of the fact that I need information to make the final decision,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said. “And if I don’t have the information to justify a yes vote, I won’t be voting yes.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she had “no idea” if she’d back the legislation until she sees the language, adding that a score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, expected Monday, would be “extremely important . . . because I want to know the impact on coverage and on cost.”
The budget office concluded that the House-approved version of the bill would cost 23 million Americans health coverage by 2026.
Other conservative lawmakers continued to complain that the measure would not go far enough in dismantling Obamacare.
“I’m still hoping we reach impasse and we go back to the idea we started with, which is repeal Obamacare,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said. “I’m not open to Obamacare lite.”