Rank-And-File Senators Kept In Dark As GOP Leaders Claim They Are Getting Close To A Bill
"[T]his is not the best way to do health care, but it’s the way we’re having to do it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Republicans, though, are trying to rein in expectations about when the vote will come.
USA Today:
Obamacare Repeal Drafted Quietly By Senate Republicans
Top Senate Republicans and their staff are plowing ahead with a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare in the hopes of getting legislation on the floor by mid-summer — even if their own GOP colleagues have no idea what the bill will contain. “It’s coming together and there’s a lot of feedback of (Congressional Budget Office) trying to get scores on different policy options ... but it’s coming,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, told reporters Monday evening. (Collins, 6/12)
Politico:
Senate GOP Reins In Expectations For Killing Obamacare
Senate Republicans are aggressively trying to rein in expectations for their Obamacare repeal effort, wary of blowing a deadline or falling short of 50 votes on a promise that has driven the GOP's political strategy for much of the past decade. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is still aiming for an Obamacare repeal vote in June, though his lieutenants acknowledge that deadline could slip into July. And while GOP leaders want to hold the vote as soon as possible, Republicans continue to avoid hard deadlines and say factors outside their control could strike. (Everett, 6/12)
In related news —
The Associated Press:
HealthCare.Gov Dropout Trend Continues Under Trump
Continuing a dropout trend seen in the Obama years, about 16 percent of consumers who signed up for coverage this year through public health insurance markets had canceled their plans by early spring, the government said Monday. Figures released from the Health and Human Services department show that 10.3 million people were signed up and paying their premiums as of March 15. That's 1.9 million fewer than the 12.2 million who initially signed up during open enrollment season, which ended Jan. 31. (6/12)
The Associated Press:
Iowa May Be First State With No Health Insurers On Exchange
"While legislation appears to slowly be moving at the federal level, it is unlikely any changes to the ACA will be enacted in time to keep Iowa's individual health insurance market from a total collapse leaving nearly 72,000 individuals with zero options to purchase health insurance for 2018," [Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug] Ommen said.(6/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
Sens. Murray, Warren Request Probe Of Whether Trump ‘Undermined’ Obamacare
Two Senate Democrats have sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services’s independent watchdog, asking for an investigation into Trump administration actions that could have “undermined” the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate’s Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), a member of the committee, requested that the department’s inspector general make public any actions taken by the Trump administration to destabilize the individual health-insurance market. (Hackman, 6/12)