Brawl over Obamacare repeal returns to
Senate floor
Send a link to a friend
[July 26, 2017]
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After a months-long
struggle, Republicans have succeeded in bringing Obamacare repeal
legislation, a centerpiece of their 2016 election campaigns, to a debate
on the U.S. Senate floor. Now the hard part begins.
Republicans, deeply divided over the proper role of the government in
helping low-income people receive healthcare, eked out a procedural win
on Tuesday when the Senate voted 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence
breaking a tie, to allow debate to start on legislation.
The outcome came as a huge relief to President Donald Trump, who has
called Obamacare a "disaster" and pushed fellow Republicans in recent
days to follow through on the party's seven-year quest to roll back the
law.
But hours later, Senate Republican leadership suffered a setback when
the repeal and replace plan that they had been working on since May
failed to get enough votes for approval, with nine out of 52 Republicans
voting against it.
Usually, bills reach the floor with a predictable outcome: Senators have
received summaries of the legislation to be debated that were written in
an open committee process, leaders have counted the number of supporters
and opponents, amendments are debated and everybody knows the likely
outcome: passage.
All that is out the window now, as the Senate on Wednesday continues a
freewheeling debate that could stretch through the week on undoing major
portions of former Democratic President Barack Obama's signature
Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance to about 20 million
people, many of them low-income.
Republican leaders have insisted they can devise a cheaper approach this
week and with less government intrusion into consumers' healthcare
decisions than Obamacare.
Democrats and other critics of the Republican effort said it would
deprive millions of health coverage.
"We’ve tried to do this by coming up with a proposal behind closed doors
in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical
members, trying to convince them it’s better than nothing, asking us to
swallow our doubts and force it past a unified opposition," Republican
Senator John McCain said on Tuesday.
"I don’t think that is going to work in the end. And it probably
shouldn’t," he added.
The veteran Arizona lawmaker made his remarks after receiving a standing
ovation from his colleagues, as he returned to the Senate just days
after surgery and being diagnosed with brain cancer.
McCain appealed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to start over
by having a Senate committee, in a bipartisan way, craft new healthcare
legislation.
[to top of second column] |
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, accompanied by Senator John
Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), speaks with
reporters following the successful vote to open debate on a health
care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 25, 2017.
REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
His proposal was promptly ignored.
'SKINNY' BILL GETS TRACTION
As senators grind through potentially scores of amendments in coming
days - in a process called a "vote-a-rama" - they will have more
than McCain's scorn to worry about.
Healthcare industry organizations are similarly troubled.
"We strongly oppose all plans so far to replace the Affordable Care
Act and have no confidence lawmakers can overcome the flaws in these
proposals," said America's Essential Hospitals, a group representing
hospitals that treat poor people.
Like McCain, the group urged the Senate, narrowly controlled by
Republicans, to halt its work on Obamacare repeal legislation and
begin a bipartisan effort on healthcare.
The Republican drive to "repeal and replace" Obamacare has taken
many unexpected turns since the House of Representatives began
working on its version of legislation last March.
For now, many Republican senators are wondering whether they may end
up going to a Plan B - a "skinny" healthcare bill that would simply
end Obamacare's penalties for individuals and employers that do not
obtain or provide health insurance, as well as abolish a medical
device tax.
It would then be up to a special Senate-House committee to come up
with a final bill that could take many turns during the negotiation.
After Tuesday's nail-biter Senate vote setting up the floor debate,
McConnell may have best summed up the landscape facing the chamber's
100 senators.
"This is just the beginning," he told reporters.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; additional reporting by Susan Cornwell;
Editing by Mary Milliken, Peter Cooney and Michael Perry)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |