Overnight Healthcare: Conservatives to introduce their own ObamaCare bill

Conservative lawmakers said Tuesday they’ll introduce their own ObamaCare repeal plan, a challenge to the proposal House GOP leaders released Monday.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said they will introduce a clean bill to repeal ObamaCare, as Congress did in 2015.

The conservatives argue that they should a repeal vote should be separate from any ObamaCare replacement bill.

They object to several aspects of Republican leadership’s plan, including a refundable tax credit meant to help people buy insurance that conservatives dub a “new entitlement.”

{mosads}”We voted on this last year, and every Republican voted for it,” Paul said at a press conference alongside his House conservative colleagues. “That’s what we should do again.”

“You have to get rid of ObamaCare completely,” Jordan added.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2lZPyse

The statement from Jordan and Paul capped a difficult day for the GOP plan…

 

Conservative groups blast GOP healthcare plan

Outside conservative groups on Tuesday blasted House Republicans’ newly unveiled healthcare proposal, saying it doesn’t live up to the GOP’s promise to fully repeal ObamaCare.

The Club for Growth dubbed the proposal “RyanCare,” after Speaker Paul Ryan, and threatened to record names of Republicans who vote for the bill unless it includes significant changes.

Heritage Action, FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, a group aligned with billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, also issued scathing statements highly critical of the “American Health Care Act.”

FreedomWorks panned the GOP bill as “ObamaCare-Lite,” while AFP labeled it “ObamaCare 2.0.”

“This is simply not a full repeal of ObamaCare. It falls far short of the promises Republicans made to the American people in four consecutive federal elections,” AFP President Tim Phillips said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2nbKl0K

 

Bill faces steep climb in Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has only three weeks to unify conservatives and moderates in his conference behind an ObamaCare repeal and replacement bill.

The American Health Care Act, which Vice President Pence on Tuesday declared “the framework for reform,” will move first in the House, but it faces perhaps an even steeper climb in the Senate.

Republicans control 52 seats in the upper chamber and can only afford to lose two votes, since Pence can vote to break a 50-50 tie. So far, at least eight Republican senators have voiced concerns with aspects of the legislation.

McConnell, a master tactician, will have his work cut out for him.

Three conservatives, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), are unhappy with parts of the House bill, which allied conservative groups have panned as not going far enough.

The Hill’s Alex Bolton has more on the scene in the upper chamber. Read more here: http://bit.ly/2myXhjU

 

GOP senator: ObamaCare repeal may not have enough votes to pass

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, said Tuesday that the Republican plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare as it stands may not be able to get the support needed to pass the Senate.

“What I don’t like is, it may not be a plan that gets a majority votes and let’s us move on. Because, we can’t stay where we are with the plan we’ve got now,” Blunt said on KMBZ, as first reported by CNN.

Blunt, a former vote counter, said the final plan would still need to be negotiated.

“I think the nucleus of the plan is clearly there, and the president says it’s negotiable and so do House members,” he said.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2myOlLD

 

But Ryan guarantees bill will pass the House

Facing the start of a conservative revolt over the GOP healthcare plan, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) vowed Tuesday that the ObamaCare replacement bill would pass the House.

“We will have 218 votes,” Ryan told reporters at a Tuesday-evening news conference that capped an extraordinary day, which saw the GOP break into open warfare over the health proposal.

“We’ll have 218 when this thing comes to the floor, I can guarantee you that,” the speaker added.

The Hill’s Scott Wong has more here: http://bit.ly/2mz73mr

 

Trump begins health bill push

President Trump on Tuesday threw his support behind the House’s plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, launching the administration’s push to sell the proposal to skeptical lawmakers and the public.

“I’m proud to support the replacement plan released by the House of Representatives,” Trump said after meeting with almost two dozen House Republicans at the White House.

He urged lawmakers to act “quickly” on the legislation, telling them he was elected “based on the fact [of] repeal and replace ObamaCare, and many of you people are in the same boat.”

The Hill’s Jordan Fabian on the view from the White House: http://bit.ly/2mjJBZB

 

Hospitals come out against GOP’s healthcare bill

The American Hospital Association announced its opposition Tuesday to the GOP’s healthcare reform plan.

The hospital association is the first health industry group to expressly come out against the legislation, dubbed the American Health Care Act, which House GOP leadership unveiled on Monday.

“We ask Congress to protect our patients, and find ways to maintain coverage for as many Americans as possible,” Richard Pollack, the president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, wrote in a letter to House Republicans.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Congress and the Administration on [Affordable Care Act] reform, but we cannot support The American Health Care Act in its current form,” he said.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2mD5ynp

 

What we’re reading:

What insurers like and dread about GOP’s plan to replace ObamaCare (Wall Street Journal)

The Republican health insurance plan slashes funding for vaccines and public health (Vox)

Republicans’ changes to Medicaid could have larger impact than their changes to ObamaCare (New York Times)

 

State by state

Illinois’s GOP gov: State ‘won’t do very well’ under Republican health insurance plan (Chicago Tribune)

Pennsylvania’s special needs children at risk in Medicaid overhaul (NBC Philadelphia)