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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Wednesday, Jun 28 2017

Full Issue

In Face Of Mounting Dissension, McConnell Blinks And Delays Health Bill Vote Until After Recess

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says the bill is not dead, but even more lawmakers came out against the proposal after the vote was pushed.

Facing intransigent Republican opposition, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, on Tuesday delayed a vote on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, dealing another setback to Republicans鈥 seven-year effort to dismantle the health law and setting up a long, heated summer of health care battles. (Kaplan and Pear, 6/27)

The surprise development leaves the legislation's fate uncertain while raising new doubts about whether President Donald Trump will ever make good on his many promises to erase his predecessor's signature legislative achievement. (6/28)

The GOP leader put on a brave face after an emergency meeting at the White House with President Trump and his conference, telling reporters that his members just needed a little bit more time. (Roubein, Sullivan and Hellmann, 6/27)

鈥淟egislation of this complexity almost always takes longer than anyone would hope,鈥 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e pressing on.鈥 McConnell said he opted to delay a planned vote on the Senate bill after several members asked for more time to review the sweeping legislation. (Haberkorn and Everett, 6/27)

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the chamber鈥檚 No. 2 Republican, said Tuesday afternoon that his GOP colleagues needed "a little more time" to work on their health care legislation. "It's a conversation and we haven't finished having our conversation," said Cornyn. (McIntire and Lesniewski, 6/27)

鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like we鈥檙e serving in the minority right now. We just simply don鈥檛 know how to govern,鈥 said Rep. Steve Womack (R., Ark.). 鈥淗ow we鈥檝e been given this opportunity to govern and we are finding every reason in the world not to is absolutely incredible to me.鈥 (Peterson and Rubin, 6/27)

Looming in the recent memory was the House push to repeal the law. When plans for a vote on it collapsed in March, Speaker Paul Ryan conceded that Obamacare would remain in force. Weeks later, with some more wrangling and a deal with conservatives brokered by Rep. Tom MacArthur of New Jersey, the House narrowly approved a modified proposal. (Tamari, 6/27)

Three more Republican senators announced opposition to the Senate鈥檚 health-care bill on Tuesday 鈥 but only after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced he will delay a vote to begin debating the legislation. (O'Keefe, 6/27)

Republican Sens. Jerry Moran (Kan.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Rob Portman (Ohio)聽announced Tuesday afternoon that they will vote against the Senate GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare in its current form. Moran said in a statement on Twitter that the bill "missed the mark," adding聽that聽he was "pleased" that the vote on the Senate bill was delayed by Republican leadership until after the July 4 recess. (Bowden, 6/27)

Sometime before 2 p.m. Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell yanked the Obamacare-repeal-and-reform bill from consideration, saying he wanted more time to work on it. It was obvious by then the bill couldn't pass.About two hours later -- after McConnell's announcement -- Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who was on the fence, announced he was opposed to the bill and could not vote for it. (Koff, 6/27)

[Portman] said the Senate draft 鈥渇alls short and therefore I cannot support it in its current form.鈥 鈥淚n the days and weeks ahead, I鈥檓 committed to continue talking with my colleagues about how we can fix the serious problems in our health-care system while protecting Ohio鈥檚 most vulnerable citizens.鈥 (Torry and Wehrman, 6/28)

Another moderate Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, welcomed the possibility that the legislation, opposed by the Senate鈥檚 46 Democrats, could eventually be abandoned to open the way for a bipartisan effort to fix the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama鈥檚 signature 2010 health legislation. (Lochhead, 6/27)

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran came out against a Republican health care bill Tuesday shortly after Senate GOP leaders announced plans to delay a vote until after July 4. Moran, a Kansas Republican, has emerged as a key vote in the fight over a Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, that would result in 22 million people losing insurance by 2026, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. (Lowry, 6/27)

After days of arm-twisting, Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday essentially conceded that they had not secured the votes to move forward on a massive overhaul of the American health care system and would pick up the issue again in July. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky emerged with the updated plans from a lunch with other GOP senators, along with the news that the chamber's Republicans were headed to the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump. (Livingston, 6/27)

Conservatives and liberals in Wisconsin both see hope in Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's steadfast refusal to back the current version of the GOP Senate health care bill. Although they disagree with the reasons for his opposition, liberals see Johnson's stand as a chance to sink the entire Republican effort to kill the existing health care law enacted under former President Barack Obama. (6/27)

Democrats quickly claimed victory on the discussion, but urged supporters to keep up pressure on a handful of undecided GOP senators over the upcoming recess. (Carney, 6/27)

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defended the head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday, just a day after the White House lashed out at the CBO鈥檚 estimate聽that the Senate GOP healthcare bill would leave 22 million more people uninsured during the next decade. Ryan expressed confidence in the integrity and impartiality of CBO Director Keith Hall, noting that then-Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) 鈥 President Trump鈥檚 current Health and Human Services secretary 鈥 was among the GOP leaders who hired Hall in 2015. (Wong, 6/27)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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