Changes To GOP Plan Will Provide Relief To Older Americans, Ryan Promises
House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke about the tweaks they would make to the American Health Care Act after the Congressional Budget Office predicted older, rural Americans would be negatively affected under the legislation.
The Associated Press:
Ryan: More Help For Older People Needed In GOP Health Bill
Days before a pivotal vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Sunday he will seek changes to a GOP health care bill to provide more help to older people. The new willingness to compromise was a bid for more support from moderate Republicans, who expressed continuing unease about the plan to replace Barack Obama's health law unless significant changes were made. (3/19)
The Associated Press:
For Many Older Americans, Costs Rise Under GOP Health Plan
Among the groups hardest hit by the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act is one that swung for Donald Trump during last year's presidential race — older Americans who have not yet reached Medicare age. Many of those who buy their own health insurance stand to pay a lot more for their coverage. That is especially true for the nearly 3.4 million older Americans who have enrolled through the government marketplaces, many of whom receive generous federal subsidies through the health care law enacted under former President Barack Obama. (3/19)
In other news on the American Health Care Act —
The Wall Street Journal:
Key Bloc Of Conservative Lawmakers Endorse GOP Health Plan
The House Republican health-care plan picked up an important endorsement on Friday from leaders of a large bloc of conservative lawmakers, after President Donald Trump backed more stringent curbs on funding for Medicaid, as well as work requirements for its low-income beneficiaries. (Radnofsky, Hackman, Peterson, 3/17)
Politico:
White House Squeezes GOP Hard-Liners As Obamacare Vote Nears
During a meeting at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Saturday, the president’s top advisers told three of the most vocal conservative opponents of the bill — Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) — that they agree with some of their demands in principle, according to several sources familiar with the discussions. But it’s also become increasingly apparent to the White House that the conservatives’ requests, which include phasing out Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion earlier and deregulating the insurance industry, are unlikely to pass the Senate. (Bade, Dawsey and Everett, 3/19)
The New York Times:
On Health Law, G.O.P. Faces A Formidable Policy Foe: House Republicans
Halfway through Congress’s 2013 summer recess, a letter landed on the desks of House Republican leaders demanding a new strategy to fight “one of the largest grievances in our time.” Give Congress the option to defund the Affordable Care Act, it said, or risk shutting down the government. Republican leaders condemned the idea, and the 80 House Republicans who signed the letter acquired a nickname, courtesy of the conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer — the “suicide caucus.” (Huetteman, 3/20)
The New York Times:
States Could Make Work A Medicaid Requirement Under G.O.P. Deal
President Trump and conservative lawmakers in the House agreed Friday to significant changes to Medicaid that could impose work requirements on able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries in some states and limit federal funds for the program, as Republican leaders tried to rally balking lawmakers behind legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “I want everyone to know, I’m 100 percent behind this,” Mr. Trump said at the White House, where he met with House members in the conservative Republican Study Committee. (Kaplan and Pear, 3/17)
The New York Times:
G.O.P.’s Health Care Tightrope Winds Through The Blue-Collar Midwest
James Waltimire, a police officer on unpaid medical leave, has been going to the hospital in this small city twice a week for physical therapy after leg surgery, all of it paid for by Medicaid. Mr. Waltimire, 54, was able to sign up for the government health insurance program last year because Ohio expanded it to cover more than 700,000 low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. He voted for President Trump — in part because of Mr. Trump’s support for law enforcement — but is now worried about the Republican plan to effectively end the Medicaid expansion through legislation to repeal the health care law. (Goodnough and Martin, 3/19)