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Senate
leaders
scramble
for deal
on
health
care
bill
By
ERICA
WERNER
and ALAN
FRAM
ap.org
WASHINGTON
- Senate
GOP
leaders
scrambled
Wednesday
for a
deal to
revive
their
health
care
legislation,
but
encountered
new
obstacles
as
recalcitrant
senators
doubled
down on
their
opposition
to the
bill
sought
by
President
Donald
Trump.
Senate
Majority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell
of
Kentucky
was
conducting
non-stop
negotiations
behind
the
scenes,
but
publicly
there
was
little
evidence
he would
be able
to get
senators
to agree
to a new
version
of the
legislation
by the
end of
the
week, as
he hopes
to.
Trump,
who met
with
Republican
senators
on
Tuesday,
told
reporters
Wednesday
that
getting
approval
of a
bill
will be
"very
tough."
But he
predicted
that
Republicans
will at
least
"get
very
close"
and may
"get it
over the
line."
McConnell
canceled
planned
votes on
the bill
on
Tuesday
in face
of
mounting
opposition
from
within
his own
ranks.
If
Senate
Republicans
can
forge a
new
version
before
the July
4
recess,
that
would
allow
the
Congressional
Budget
Office
to
evaluate
the
changes
while
senators
return
to their
states.
Many are
likely
to
encounter
questions
or
protests
about
the
highly
unpopular
GOP
legislation
that
kicks
millions
off the
insurance
rolls.
"This
bill is
not a
full
repeal;
this
bill is
not a
full
replace;
what
this
bill is
is
mostly
just a
Medicaid
reform
package,"
GOP Sen.
Ben
Sasse of
Nebraska
said in
a
statement
to The
Omaha
World-Herald.
"Nebraskans
are
dissatisfied
with it
and so
am I,"
added
Sasse,
who had
not
previously
commented
on the
bill.
Sen.
Shelley
Moore
Capito
of West
Virginia
said
negotiators
were
struggling
with how
to
resolve
conflicts
between
the
states
that
have
expanded
the
Medicaid
health
program
for the
poor and
disabled,
and
those
that
have
not.
Thirty-one
states
plus
Washington,
D.C.,
accepted
the
Medicaid
expansion
offered
under
former
President
Barack
Obama's
Affordable
Care Act
while 19
states
did not,
and
there
are
Republican
senators
representing
states
in each
group.
"What
you see
now is a
great
divide
between
states
like
mine,
who have
the
expansion,
and
other
states
who are
non-expansion
states,"
Capito
said
Wednesday
on CNN.
"And
that's
really
where
we're
sort of
at
loggerheads
here."
Medicaid
is
crucial
to
addressing
West
Virginia's
frightening
opioid
epidemic,
and that
concern
caused
Capito
and Ohio
Sen. Rob
Portman,
who
faces
similar
issues
in his
state,
to
announce
their
opposition
to the
legislation
on
Tuesday.
They
joined
several
conservatives
and a
couple
moderates
who also
oppose
the bill
or have
qualms.
Once it
became
clear
that
there
was not
enough
support
for the
legislation
to
advance
this
week
McConnell
canceled
planned
votes.
McConnell
can lose
only two
senators
from his
52-member
caucus
and
still
pass the
bill,
with
Vice
President
Mike
Pence to
cast a
tie-breaking
vote.
Democrats
are
unanimously
opposed.
With the
health
care
bill in
limbo
the rest
of
Trump's
agenda
is also
stalled.
Indeed,
despite
full
control
of
Washington,
Republicans
have yet
to
achieve
any of
their
marquee
legislative
goals.
The
health
legislation
to get
rid of
"Obamacare"
was
supposed
to come
first,
but it
has
proven
far more
difficult
than
anticipated.
It
stymied
the
House
for much
of the
spring
until a
bill was
finally
passed
in May,
and now
has the
Senate
tied in
knots.
Congressional
leaders
are
eager to
dispense
with the
issue
and move
on to
other
matters,
including
rewriting
the
nation's
loophole-ridden
tax
code.
That's
why
McConnell
was
hoping
for
votes
this
week on
the
health
bill he
crafted
largely
in
secret,
but
senators
needed
more
time,
especially
after a
Congressional
Budget
Office
report
Monday
showing
22
million
people
would
lose
insurance
over the
next
decade.
The bill
has many
critics
and few
outspoken
fans on
Capitol
Hill,
and
prospects
for
changing
that are
uncertain.
"It's a
big
complicated
subject,
we've
got a
lot
discussions
going
on, and
we're
still
optimistic
we're
going to
get
there,"
McConnell
said.
But
adjustments
to
placate
conservatives,
who want
the
legislation
to be
more
stringent,
only
push
away
moderates
who
think
its
current
limits -
on
Medicaid
for
example
- are
too
strong.
In the
folksy
analysis
of John
Cornyn
of
Texas,
the
Senate
GOP
vote-counter:
"Every
time you
get one
bullfrog
in the
wheelbarrow,
another
one
jumps
out."
The
Senate
plan
would
end the
tax
penalty
the law
imposes
on
people
who
don't
buy
insurance,
in
effect
erasing
Obama's
so-called
individual
mandate,
and on
larger
businesses
that
don't
offer
coverage
to
workers.
It would
cut
Medicaid,
which
provides
health
insurance
to over
70
million
poor and
disabled
people,
by $772
billion
through
2026 by
capping
its
overall
spending
and
phasing
out
Obama's
expansion
of the
program.
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