{"id":35043,"date":"2017-07-17T05:05:50","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T05:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=35043"},"modified":"2017-07-17T05:05:50","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T05:05:50","slug":"a-top-republican-vows-a-vote-on-health-care-but-uncertainty-reigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/a-top-republican-vows-a-vote-on-health-care-but-uncertainty-reigns.html","title":{"rendered":"A Top Republican Vows a Vote on Health Care, but Uncertainty Reigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Top Republican Vows a Vote on Health Care, but Uncertainty Reigns<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

A Top Republican Vows a Vote on Health Care, but Uncertainty Reigns:- A Top Republican Vows a Vote on Health Care, but Uncertainty ReignsA top Senate Republican vowed on Sunday to bring the party\u2019s health care bill to a vote as soon as possible, even as detractors said they would use a delay caused by the absence of Senator John McCain to mobilize further opposition to the measure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe as soon as we have a full contingent of senators, that we\u2019ll have that vote,\u201d the No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But questions emerged Sunday over when that might be. Mr. McCain, 80, had a craniotomy \u2014 a procedure in which doctors create an opening in the skull \u2014 on Friday to remove a blood clot above his left eye, and he is recovering at home in Arizona. A statement from his office had indicated that he would be out this week, but neurosurgeons not involved with Mr. McCain\u2019s surgery said the recovery period for such a procedure was often longer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor most patients, the time to recover from a craniotomy is usually a few weeks,\u201d said Dr. Nrupen Baxi, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. McCain\u2019s surgeons are not giving interviews. His communications director, Julie Tarallo, said more information would be released when it became available.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aides to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said it was unclear how long the delay would last.<\/span><\/p>\n

The timing of the Senate vote is crucial. The more it is delayed, the more likely the bill is to fail, supporters and opponents say. Moreover, the Senate schedule will soon be packed with other legislation, like an increase in the statutory limit on federal borrowing and spending bills for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. In addition, Republicans are eager to cut taxes and simplify the tax code.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate has struggled to pass a health care bill, delaying a vote on a previous version of the legislation in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several Republican senators have expressed reservations or outright opposition to the new version as well, and Republicans need Mr. McCain\u2019s vote to have any chance of passing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill, to repeal and replace major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, is a top priority for President Trump and Republicans in the House, which passed its own repeal bill in early May.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Cornyn acknowledged that \u201cthere\u2019s uncertainty about what the final outcome will be.\u201d Asked what would happen if the bill did not pass, he said: \u201cI assume we\u2019ll keep trying. But at some point, if Democrats won\u2019t participate in the process, then we\u2019re going to have to come up with a different plan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Critics of the Senate\u2019s health care bill, taking advantage of the delay, said Sunday that Republican leaders needed to rework the legislation in fundamental ways. Given the additional time, they said, Senate committees should hold hearings to solicit opinions from the public and from experts on health care and insurance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not be making fundamental changes in a vital safety net program that\u2019s been on the books for 50 years, the Medicaid program, without having a single hearing to evaluate what the consequences are going to be,\u201d Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Roughly 20 million people have gained coverage through the Affordable Care Act, a pillar of President Barack Obama\u2019s legacy. But Mr. Cornyn described the law on Sunday as a failed \u201cexercise in central planning and command and control.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, declined to comment beyond wishing Mr. McCain a quick recovery, as did Marc Lotter, a spokesman for Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Trump has been urging lawmakers to pass the bill, saying he is waiting with pen in hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, Mr. Pence assured skeptical governors that \u201cthe Senate health care bill strengthens and secures Medicaid for the neediest in our society,\u201d putting the program, which serves more than 70 million low-income people, on \u201ca path to long-term sustainability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Ms. Collins said: \u201cI would respectfully disagree with the vice president\u2019s analysis. This bill would impose fundamental, sweeping changes in the Medicaid program, and those include very deep cuts. That would affect some of the most vulnerable people in our society, including disabled children, poor seniors. It would affect our rural hospitals and our nursing homes. And they would have a very difficult time even staying in existence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThere are about eight to 10 Republican senators who have serious concerns about this bill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans hold 52 Senate seats, and all Democratic senators oppose the bill. Ms. Collins and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, have said they will vote against even starting the debate, meaning all other Republican senators need to vote for the legislation if it is to pass.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Paul\u2019s reasons for opposing the bill are very different from Ms. Collins\u2019s; he says it retains too much of the Affordable Care Act. And he predicted that support for the legislation would erode because of the delay prompted by Mr. McCain\u2019s absence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer the bill\u2019s out there, the more conservative Republicans are going to discover that it\u2019s not repeal,\u201d he said Sunday on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d \u201cAnd the more that everybody\u2019s going to discover that it keeps the fundamental flaw of Obamacare. It keeps the insurance mandates that cause the prices to rise, which chase young, healthy people out of the marketplace and leads to what people call adverse selection, where you have a sicker and sicker insurance pool and the premiums keep rising through the roof.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Voters \u201celected us to repeal Obamacare,\u201d Mr. Paul added. But with the bill drafted by Mr. McConnell, the senior senator from his home state, he said, \u201cwe\u2019re going to keep most of the taxes, keep the regs, keep the subsidies and create a giant bailout superfund for the insurance companies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, said Sunday that he did not think delaying the vote would change the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTime is not the problem in the present health care bill,\u201d Mr. Schumer said. \u201cThe problem is the substance. It slashes Medicaid, which has become something that helps middle-class New Yorkers \u2014 millions of them, literally \u2014 and millions of Americans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The delay gives critics of the repeal bill more time to investigate numbers being used by the Trump administration to defend it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The administration has been telling Congress and governors that the bill includes plenty of money to provide private insurance for people who would lose Medicaid coverage. But those estimates are based on particular assumptions chosen by administration officials. Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, a Republican, and others have questioned the validity of those assumptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The assumptions, made by political appointees in the Trump administration, specify how states would use money provided by the bill and how many people losing Medicaid would buy private insurance.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a report on the House bill last month, the office of the actuary at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said most of the people who lost Medicaid coverage would \u201cultimately be uninsured, though a small fraction would choose to purchase individual insurance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Millions of people have gained coverage in the 31 states that chose to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and many of them are projected to lose that coverage under the Senate and House bills, which would roll back the expansion of Medicaid.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Congress convened in January, Republicans appeared to be on course to repeal the Affordable Care Act within a month or two, but they met with growing resistance as lawmakers, consumers, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies scrutinized the proposals. Mr. McConnell delayed a vote scheduled for the week before the Fourth of July. Then, with no visible progress toward agreement, he delayed the Senate\u2019s August recess by two weeks so senators could keep working.<\/span><\/p>\n

Administration officials will use the time provided by the latest delay to try to persuade undecided Republican senators to vote for the bill. They will also try to raise doubts about the work of the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that an earlier version of Mr. McConnell\u2019s bill could increase the number of uninsured Americans by 22 million by 2026, compared with current law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nonpartisan budget office had been expected to issue a report on the latest draft of the bill on Monday, but it now plans to take more time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawmakers are eager to see what the office says about a proposal added to the bill last week in a bid for support from the most conservative Republican senators. Under the proposal, insurers could offer cheaper, less comprehensive health plans if they also offered three standard plans with all the benefits required by the Affordable Care Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

The author of the proposal, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, said it would give consumers \u201cthe freedom to choose among more affordable plans\u201d that were \u201cfree from Obamacare\u2019s insurance regulations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The skimpier plans would cover less and presumably cost less, and insurers said they would also attract healthier people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese junk insurance plans could charge people more or simply deny them coverage based on pre-existing conditions,\u201d said Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/07\/16\/us\/politics\/health-care-vote-john-mccain.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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