Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
After Promising 'Repeal' For 7 Years and Failing, The GOP Is Worried About Facing Its Own Voters
Republicans face a big problem following the collapse of their latest push to repeal the Obama health care law: Their own voters are angry and don't trust them. Right now, they don't know what to do about it. That's trouble for a party preparing to defend its House and Senate majorities in 2018 midterm elections that look riskier than most imagined months ago. (9/29)
Republicans face a big problem following the collapse of their latest push to repeal the Obama health care law: Their own voters are angry and don't trust them. Right now, they don't know what to do about it. That's trouble for a party preparing to defend its House and Senate majorities in 2018 midterm elections that look riskier than most imagined months ago. (9/30)
On Tuesday, Senate Republicans聽decided against voting聽by the end of September on a last-ditch effort to repeal the health law, acknowledging the measure wouldn鈥檛 have passed. The announcement effectively killed the repeal effort for the immediate future, as the fast-track budget maneuver Republicans were using to gut ObamaCare can't be used聽this year after聽Sept. 30. Even without a new GOP-made health care system聽to run against, Democrats believe they have enough ammo to hit Republicans by pointing to聽the previous repeal attempts, all of which scored badly in approval polls. (Roubein, 10/1)
And in other health law news聽鈥
Despite their latest failure to scrap the Affordable Care Act, Republicans have vowed to keep trying. If they fulfill that promise, their future proposals are likely to resemble their past ones in one key respect: They will ask states to remake the health insurance marketplaces within their borders with less federal money to do it. (Ollove, 9/29)
Senate Republicans unveiled a fiscal 2018 budget resolution Friday that they intend to use to push through as much as $1.5 trillion of tax cuts in the coming months, but it won鈥檛 allow the GOP to pursue a full repeal of Obamacare. The budget proposal would still allow Republicans to pursue a much narrower attack on the Affordable Care Act, including repealing the individual mandate to purchase coverage. The resolution also would let the GOP use the fast-track process to open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Wasson, 9/29)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)聽on Friday聽warned against a "bailout" of insurance companies, a warning shot as other Republicans work with Democrats on a bill to stabilize ObamaCare markets.聽鈥淚t would be a serious mistake to bail out insurance companies, rather than provide relief to the millions of Americans who are hurting under Obamacare," Cruz said in a statement. (Sullivan, 9/29)
Senate Republicans appear to have conceded defeat on repealing ObamaCare this year, as the newly released budget resolution for fiscal year 2018 focuses almost entirely on tax reform. The draft released Friday only includes legislating instructions to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, which don鈥檛 have jurisdiction over health insurance. (Weixel, 9/29)
Vice President Mike Pence has spent countless hours behind closed doors with congressional Republicans negotiating on health care and other issues, yet the GOP legislative agenda has largely stalled. But Republican lawmakers are not blaming President Donald Trump鈥檚 Capitol Hill 鈥渋nsider鈥 鈥 quite the contrary, in fact. Pence, once part of the House GOP leadership team, was billed as Trump鈥檚 get-things-done guy. So far, the vice president鈥檚 appreciable legislative accomplishments are scant. ... House and Senate Republicans across the spectrum were eager to shield the VP from criticism last week after a second Republican-crafted health care bill failed in the Senate. (Bennett, 10/2)
