Senate Republicans are in for a rough, if not impossible time passing their latest health care plan to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
A draft carefully-crafted in secret and designed to appeal to the GOP’s conservative right and moderate wings managed to do neither when its details were finally unveiled on Thursday.
Just a few hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., revealed his proposal’s contents, Republican senators from the middle and the right quickly raised objections to key elements or offered tepid reactions.
“It does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their healthcare costs,” said a statement from four other conservative Republican senators.
Among other senators, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he would “continue to reach out for input and suggested changes from Florida providers, insurers and patient advocate groups.”
Senate Republican leaders can afford to lose only three GOP votes for their plan, since chamber’s 46 Democrats and two independents are expected to vote no on any bill that does away with Obamacare. Vice President Mike Pence would break a 50-50 tie.
But to get to even 50, Republicans have a lot of persuading and rewriting to do on a host of concerns, including abortion policy, Medicaid expansion and whether the plan follows the “Jimmy Kimmel test.” The ABC late night talk show host stirred lawmakers recently with an emotional description of his infant son’s hospitalization, urging that people have access to medical attention.
They need to convince wavering lawmakers such as Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, considered next year’s most vulnerable Senate Republican up for re-election.
"At first glance, I have serious concerns about the bill’s impact on the Nevadans who depend on Medicaid," Heller said. "As I have consistently stated; if the bill’s good for Nevada, I’ll vote for it and if it’s not – I won’t."
The dividing lines:
THE CONSERVATIVES
Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin issued a short, terse, joint statement that said "we are not ready to vote for this bill" while also stating that it does contain elements "that represent an improvement to our current healthcare system."
Their main complaint: The GOP plan doesn’t do enough to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Paul dismissed the bill as "Obamacare-lite," referring to the Republican bill’s continuation of several of the Affordable Care Act’s regulations.