Health care bill meets GOP skeptics in Senate

After Rep. Chris Collins told CNN that he hadn’t read the entire text of the legislation, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was quick to blast the Republican from NY, saying he “doesn’t respect or care about” his constituents. And it would cut Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled, including ending extra federal payments 31 states are accepting to expand Medicaid to cover more people.

Economist Anthony LoSasso, a professor of health policy and administration at the University of IL at Chicago, said the House GOP proposal represented “the best hope” to prevent the individual insurance market’s downward spiral. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. He cited its Medicaid cuts, including for treating people with drug problems, and said he’d make sure that “those who are impacted by this epidemic can continue to receive treatment”.

The president Tweeted Thursday: “If victorious, Republicans will be having a big press conference at the handsome Rose Garden of the White House immediately after vote!” Maternity care is covered by Medicaid, and about half the births in the US are paid for by Medicaid, according to an estimate from the George Washington University School of Public Health.

“There are three layers of protection for people with pre-existing conditions. Legislators and governors will have to answer for that”. Republican senators have signaled they would scrap the AHCA and come up with a bill of their own.

“I don’t think this bill will lower premiums for average Americans”, he said. Maybe, maybe not. That said, you can disparage elements of this plan, but you also have to acknowledge the larger imperative here: Obamacare is flopping.

“At this time, I can not support the AHCA with the MacArthur amendment because I’m concerned that a small percentage of those with pre-existing conditions may still not be protected”, Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, who sits in a district Clinton won, said in a statement explaining his decision.

In remarks at the Rose Garden event, Trump said the current law had been “a catastrophe” and made sweeping assurances about the GOP’s replacement measure, which he said he was confident would pass the Senate despite some strong reservations from Republican senators. “Yes, deductibles will be coming down”.

In fact, it happened to numerous Democrats who voted in favor of Obamacare.

Following the passage of the bill, Democrats on the House floor chanted: “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye”, implying unpopular provisions in the bill would handicap Republicans seeking reelection next year. He added that the new dynamic “is consistent with past scenarios that have generated a midterm wave” and “almost a mirror image of 2010”.

Relieved Republicans have pushed their prized health care bill through the House. Will that process deliver a new law?

Yesterday, the American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed the House of Representatives 217-213. “The bill would also base subsidies on a person’s age, adversely affecting younger farmers, while dramatically easing restrictions on what companies can charge older farmers”.

Duffy spoke about the Republican bill in glowing terms when interviewed on Fox News Channel: “So this is a huge step in moving forward for the American people and getting a sane health care system that will look out for the American people and families instead of bureaucrats here in Washington”.

And so while House Republicans marked the moment by hopping on buses to the White House, their counterparts in the Senate warned of a long and windy road that could last anywhere from weeks to months before a vote.

The Republican edge in the Senate is just 52-48.

Official Democratic groups were more cagey about releasing fundraising totals.

If Trump gets a real White House signing ceremony this fall or early in 2018, then voters can judge whether they are better off than they were with Obamacare.

Democratic political groups are poised and ready to attack moderate Republicans who supported it and could be vulnerable in 2018.