|
 The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee approved the
bill along party lines on Thursday morning after debating the draft
legislation for nearly 18 hours.
The chamber's Energy and Commerce committee continued its own
marathon session, two days after it was unveiled by Republican
leaders.
"This is an historic step, an important step in the repeal of
Obamacare," said Republican Representative Kevin Brady, chairman of
the House Ways and Means committee, after the committee voted 23-16
on the measure.
Congress is hoping to pass the bill, which would roll back much of
the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, within a
few weeks. The bill would roll back the individual mandate for
people to buy insurance, reverse most Obamacare taxes, introduce a
new, smaller system of tax credits based on age rather than income,
and overhaul Medicaid, the government health insurance program for
the poor.
The committee, which was looking at the tax-related provisions of
the bill, made no changes, despite dozens of attempts by Democrats
to introduce amendments.
Hospitals, doctors, insurers and patient advocates had appealed to
congress after the draft was released on Monday to reconsider the
broad cuts and how they would affect healthcare.
The bill is Trump's first legislative test and the fast-emerging
disorder around it comes after the chaos triggered by his travel ban
on citizens from several Muslim-majority nations, which he later had
to revise.
Trump and fellow Republicans campaigned last year on a pledge to
dismantle the Obamacare healthcare law, the signature domestic
policy achievement of Democratic former President Barack Obama,
calling it a government overreach that had ruined the more than $3
trillion U.S. healthcare system.
Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act and condemned by
Republicans since its passage in 2010, enabled 20 million previously
uninsured people to obtain coverage, about half through an expansion
- which the new bill would end - of Medicaid, the government health
insurance program for the poor.
Republican lawmakers face resistance from conservatives within their
own ranks who say the bill, which would create a system of tax
credits to coax people to buy private insurance on the open market,
is not radical enough.
Democrats denounce it as a gift to the rich and say informed debate
on the plan is impossible without knowing its cost.
"Republicans should not advance Trumpcare until Congress and the
people we represent understand the full scope of its impact,"
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Budget
committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Democrats mounted four adjournment motions on the floor of the House
on Wednesday, threatening to disrupt the two committee debates, in
protest at the lack of analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
"This is decision-making without the facts, without the evidence ...
afraid of the facts," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told
reporters.
[to top of second column] |
"CONSTRUCTIVE IMPROVEMENTS"
Republicans said they had asked the CBO to "score" the bill -
provide a preliminary estimate on its cost - and expect to have that
analysis by the time it hits the House floor.
"We're all God's children and we all want a CBO score," said
Republican Representative Joe Barton from Texas.
Dan Holler, spokesperson for Heritage Action, a powerful
conservative action group, also called for more information.
"Americans deserve full transparency, which includes the full budget
score," he said.
But some Republicans have cast doubt on the accuracy of CBO
estimates, suggesting its initial assessment of the cost of
Obamacare had proved far wide of the mark.
"If you're looking at the CBO for accuracy, you're looking in the
wrong place," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Wednesday.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with leaders of conservative
groups who have concerns about the bill on Wednesday and a White
House official later said they were "open to constructive
improvements that maintain the core principles and get the bill over
the goal."
Once the two committees have approved their parts of the
legislation, both will go to the House Budget Committee, which is
expected to merge them into one bill that will then be voted on by
the full House of Representatives.
House Speaker Paul Ryan wants that vote to happen this month so the
bill can move to the Senate for consideration.
The top U.S. doctors' organization and several hospital groups have
come out strongly against the Republican plan, saying it would
probably cause many patients to lose insurance and raise healthcare
costs.
Andrey Ostrovsky, the chief medical officer of Medicaid, said on
Twitter he was aligned with other experts in opposition to the bill,
breaking with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who has
called it "a work in progress."
(The story was refiled to correct the fifth paragraph to say
proposal would roll back much of Obamacare rather than repeal the
law)
(Additional reporting by David Morgan and Brendan O'Brien; Writing
by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Michael Perry, Simon Cameron-Moore
and Dominic Evans)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
