GOP Wooed Conservatives In House, But Senate Compromises Are Favoring Moderates
Leadership has little room for error in their strategy to secure enough votes. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may favor keeping coverage protections for people with preexisting conditions, an aide says.
The New York Times:
Senate Health Bill May Alienate G.O.P. Conservatives
Senate Republicans are closing in on a bill to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, diverging from the House on pre-existing medical conditions and maintaining federal subsidies that proponents see as essential to stabilizing insurance markets around the country. The changes appear largely designed to appeal to Republican senators who hail from states where the Affordable Care Act is popular and who were critical of the House bill, which would eliminate insurance for millions of Americans covered under the current law, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the revisions may well alienate the Senate’s most conservative members, who are eager to rein in the growth of Medicaid and are unlikely to support a bill that does not roll back large components of the current law. (Steinhauer and Pear, 6/7)
Bloomberg:
McConnell Backs Obamacare Pre-Existing Condition Protection, Source Says
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is proposing to keep in place Obamacare’s protection against higher health-insurance premiums for people with pre-existing conditions when they buy individual coverage, said a Republican aide familiar with the recommendation. The idea was discussed in a closed-door Senate GOP meeting Tuesday, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Republicans in the chamber are working to craft a more modest health-care bill than a House measure that nonpartisan analysts said would cause premiums to skyrocket for many older, poorer and sicker Americans and result in 23 million fewer people with coverage over a decade. (Litvan, 6/7)
Politico:
Senate GOP May Keep Obamacare Taxes To Pay For Their Repeal
Senate Republicans are considering keeping some Obamacare taxes for a few more years to pay for their own repeal bill. Many want to make their repeal plan more generous than the House’s effort but are struggling to come up with ways to pay for it. The dilemma is how to balance the expensive effort to drive down premiums with a desire to scrap taxes that would raise money. (Haberkorn, Everett and Cancryn, 6/7)
In related news —
The Washington Post:
White House Touts The ACA’s Demise Even As Insurers Seek Help In Stabilizing Its Marketplace
The event Wednesday on an airport tarmac in Cincinnati was just the latest opportunity for the White House to disparage and undercut a law it officially must carry out. Standing in front of Air Force One along with two small-business owners, President Trump recounted how they “have had their lives completely upended by the disaster known as Obamacare.” One saw her choice of doctors shrink while her premiums and out-of-pocket costs rose, he said. The other has curtailed new investments in his company to maintain employees’ health benefits. “The coverage is horrendous,” the president declared, ticking off insurers’ recent decisions to pull out of federal marketplaces in Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere. “Obamacare is in a total death spiral. The problems will only get worse if Congress fails to act.” (Eilperin and Phillip, 6/7)
Politico:
GOP Uncertainty Over Obamacare Drives Out Insurers
Obamacare markets are undergoing a slow-motion meltdown as Republicans stoke a climate of uncertainty while struggling to agree on their own plan for overhauling American health care. The steady march of insurers that have announced plans to exit marketplaces in recent weeks leaves Obamacare customers in wide swaths of the country with potentially no options for purchasing subsidized coverage in 2018. In the latest and most significant blow, Anthem this week announced it will pull out of Ohio next year, leaving at least 18 counties without an insurer selling Obamacare plans. (Demko, 6/8)
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Trump's Dodgy Data On Health Care, Stimulus
President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to give new life to a Republican health-care bill that's facing uncertain prospects in Congress, using a speech about infrastructure in Cincinnati to go after "Obamacare," too. He mangled some facts and repeated familiar exaggerations. A look at a few of them. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/7)