Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP May Unveil New Health Bill This Week
Senate Republican leaders plan to unveil a revised version of their health-care bill later this week after making little progress on winning over party holdouts. GOP leaders will hold a vote on the measure next week, John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters on Monday. They haven鈥檛 said publicly how they鈥檙e planning to change the proposed legislation to win more support. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been negotiating with his Republican colleagues over revisions to a bill he proposed last month that combines tax cuts with deep reductions in health spending. (Litvan, 7/10)
New bill text could be unveiled to senators as soon as Thursday, according to sources familiar with the proposal. A Congressional Budget Office score is likely to follow as soon as next Monday. (Everett, Haberkorn and Dawsey, 7/10)
But some Republicans appear skeptical of that timeline. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to want to see the amendments, and we鈥檙e also going to want to make sure that we have a chance to see what the score is and understand it. And then also, we鈥檙e going to want to be able to talk to people in the industry,鈥 Sen. John Hoeven of South Dakota told reporters. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to take some time to work through that and understand that.鈥 (Williams, 7/10)
Republicans are weighing a number of different changes to the legislation to appease both flanks of the caucus. While conservatives have called for insurance policies that don鈥檛 meet the health law鈥檚 requirements to be sold on the individual exchanges, moderates are seeking to mitigate cuts to Medicaid and provide more generous tax credits than the original draft to help individuals afford insurance, among other potential changes. (McIntire, 7/10)
When asked about a timeline for a new draft bill, McConnell鈥檚 spokesman David Popp was more vague. 鈥淚 don't have any expectations of an exact bill release date, but the Leader said over the past couple weeks that a (Congressional Budget Office) score is forthcoming,鈥 Popp told USA TODAY. The nonpartisan CBO analyzes costs and impacts聽of legislation and is reviewing changes to the draft health care bill Republicans are floating in hopes of winning support from more senators. (Collins, 7/10)
Senate Republicans are scheduled to be聽updated on legislation repealing and replacing ObamaCare during a closed-door caucus meeting聽on Tuesday.聽"We're supposed to find out more at lunch," GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) told reporters, after saying she wasn't able to comment on any changes made to the bill during the July Fourth recess. 聽(Carney, 7/10)
White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short said recently that the CBO is counting millions of nonexistent people in its estimate of the number of Americans who stand to lose insurance coverage under the Senate鈥檚 proposed health care bill. Short鈥檚 claim is a variation on a recent Republican talking point: The CBO report did not use its most recent baseline estimates when scoring the Senate health care bill. (Carroll, 7/11)