Republicans Press Forward With Repeal Efforts Despite Governors’ Plea To Reject Measure

The New York Times: Republican Leaders Defy Bipartisan Opposition To Health Law Repeal
Eleven governors, including five Republicans and a pivotal Alaskan independent, urged the Senate on Tuesday to reject a last-ditch push to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. But Republican leaders pressed toward a showdown vote. And they choked off separate bipartisan efforts to shore up health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, hoping to give Republican senators no alternative but to vote for repeal. (Pear and Kaplan, 9/19)

Politico: Backlash Throws Last-Ditch Obamacare Repeal Effort Into Doubt
Opponents of the proposal co-authored by Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina seized on its plan to overhaul Obamacare’s subsidized insurance and Medicaid expansion and replace those with block grants to the states — a mass restructuring they warned would sow chaos in insurance markets. They panned its new regulatory flexibilities as a backdoor route to undermining key patient protections — including safeguards for those with pre-existing conditions. And in the biggest blow, several Republican governors urged the GOP to abandon a plan that would force states to swallow potentially billions in funding cuts — and instead to focus on stabilizing Obamacare. (Cancryn, 9/19)

The Washington Post: New Health-Care Plan Stumbles Under Opposition From Governors
Among the signers were Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I), who holds some sway over Murkowski, a potentially decisive vote who opposed a previous Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Nevertheless, Murkowski said Tuesday afternoon that she was still weighing her options and explained how her position on the bill might ultimately differ from her opposition to the repeal effort that failed dramatically in July. “If it can be shown that Alaska is not going to be disadvantaged, you gain additional flexibility. Then I can go back to Alaskans, and I can say, ‘Okay, let’s walk through this together.’ That’s where it could be different,” she said. (Sullivan, Eilperin and Snell, 9/19)

The Associated Press: A Last, Last Chance: Republicans Strain For Obamacare Repeal
Republicans must act by Sept. 30 in the Senate or face the prospect of a Democratic filibuster. That blocking action is currently staved off by budget rules that will expire at the end of the month. The new legislation, by Graham and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, would undo the central pillars of former President Barack Obama’s health care law, and replace them with block grants to the states so they could make their own health care coverage rules. (Werner, 9/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Latest Push For A Health-Law Repeal Picks Up Speed In The Senate
The White House ... threw its muscle behind the legislation. Vice President Mike Pence flew back Tuesday to Washington from United Nations meetings in New York to publicly cheer on Republican senators, saying President Donald Trump and the administration are strongly behind the effort. (Armour, Peterson and Radnofsky, 9/19)

The Hill: Graham Predicts ObamaCare Repeal Bill Will Get 50 Votes 
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is predicting he will get enough votes on his bill to repeal ObamaCare and says House leadership has pledged they would also pass it. "I really believe we're going to get 50 Republican votes," Graham told reporters after a closed-door GOP caucus lunch on Tuesday. "I've never felt better about where we're at." (Carney, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: White House, Republican Leaders Join New Push For Obamacare Repeal As Bipartisan Effort Falters
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) made clear earlier Tuesday that House Republicans would not support the bipartisan Senate effort, further narrowing the options for those hoping for an alternative to the Graham-Cassidy bill. Ryan said the House instead was ready to approve the Cassidy-Graham bill. “He told me, ‘You pass it there, we’ll pass it here,’” said Graham, recounting a phone call with the speaker. (Levey and Mascaro, 9/19)

Politico: House GOP Under Pressure If Senate Passes Repeal
Though House GOP leaders are bullish that they can pull off a repeat performance on Obamacare repeal if given the chance, they’ll have to twist a lot of arms within the ranks to get there. Some conservatives want more flexibility for governors. At the same time, vulnerable centrists from states that would be hit hardest by the Senate bill, including California and New York, could face a severe backlash from constituents. (Bade and Cheney, 9/20)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare 101: What Would The Graham-Cassidy Repeal Bill Do?
The Graham-Cassidy proposal shares some features of earlier repeal legislation approved in the House and debated in the Senate, including scrapping the requirement that Americans have health coverage and placing new restrictions on federal funding for Planned Parenthood. ... But the new repeal bill is substantially more sweeping and goes far beyond just repealing the 2010 healthcare law, often called Obamacare. The Graham-Cassidy proposal would completely restructure how the federal government provides healthcare assistance to some 80 million Americans and create a new system for distributing hundreds of billions of dollars of government aid. (Levey, 9/19)

The Associated Press: Winners And Losers In GOP's Last-Ditch Health Overhaul
The GOP's last-ditch effort to repeal "Obamacare" would redistribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal financing for insurance coverage, creating winners and losers among individual Americans and states in ways not yet fully clear. Independent analysts say the latest Senate Republican bill is likely to leave more people uninsured than the Affordable Care Act, and allow states to make changes that raise costs for people with health problems or pre-existing medical conditions. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/19)

The New York Times: Blue States Face Biggest Cuts Under New Republican Health Care Plan
A new Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act would give each state a federal block grant for health care using a complex formula that cuts funding for some states — including many that were won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 — according to a New York Times analysis of estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. (Park, 9/19)

The Washington Post: Jimmy Kimmel Gets Heated About Health-Care Bill, Says Sen. Bill Cassidy ‘Lied Right To My Face’
In May, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel delivered an emotional monologue as he revealed that his newborn son, Billy, was born with a heart defect that required immediate surgery. The operation was successful, but Kimmel was deeply shaken by the experience, which happened amid the debate over replacing the Affordable Care Act. Kimmel delivered a passionate plea about the astronomical costs of health care: “No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life.” (Yahr, 9/20)

The Hill: GOP Chairman Declares Bipartisan ObamaCare Fix Dead 
The Senate Health Committee chairman on Tuesday released a statement ending a bipartisan effort to find an ObamaCare fix amid a new GOP push to repeal the law. "During the last month, we have worked hard and in good faith, but have not found the necessary consensus among Republicans and Democrats to put a bill in the Senate leaders’ hands that could be enacted," Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in the statement. (Sullivan, 9/19)

Politico: Did Democrats Jump The Gun With Single-Payer Splash?
Last week, a group of Senate Democrats rallied behind single-payer health care at a splashy news conference. This week, the same group is scrambling to beat back the GOP's latest Obamacare repeal blitz. The contrast shows the chasm between the two parties’ approach to health care: Republicans claim that Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” pitch fueled their revived repeal effort, an argument that even Democratic single-payer foes dismiss as untrue. Yet some Democrats wish more attention had been paid to protecting the Affordable Care Act before some of the party's biggest names turned to single payer. (Schor, 9/19)