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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Tuesday, Jul 18 2017

Full Issue

With No Votes To Spare, Two More Republican Defections Effectively Kill Senate Health Bill

Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) say they can't vote for the legislation. “We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy,” Moran wrote on Twitter.

Two more Republican senators declared on Monday night that they would oppose the Senate Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, killing, for now, a seven-year-old promise to overturn President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. (Kaplan, 7/17)

They joined Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine), who also oppose it. With just 52 seats, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes to pass their proposed rewrite of the Affordable Care Act. All 46 Democrats and two independents are expected to vote against it. (Sullivan and Bernstein, 7/18)

Moran and Collins, another centrist, have expressed strong concerns about the bill's Medicaid cuts and coverage losses, while Paul and Lee have criticized the bill's failure to roll back more of the ACA's insurance regulations and coverage subsidies. (Meyer, 7/17)

Highlighting the challenges faced by McConnell, Lee argued the measure is not conservative enough, tugging in the opposite direction from moderates. (Carney, 7/17)

“In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn’t go far enough in lowering premiums for middle-class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations,” Mr. Lee, one of the Senate’s most conservative Republicans, said in a statement Monday night. (Peterson and Armour, 7/17)

A repeal without a replacement is almost certain to get blocked in the Senate as well. The inability to deliver on seven years of GOP promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would be the biggest failure yet for Trump and Republicans since they won control of Congress and the White House. (Litvan and Dennis, 7/17)

In a tweet Monday, President Trump voiced support for repeal only: “Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!” (Mascaro, 7/17)

At town hall meetings over Congress’ July 4 break, Moran said he was concerned the bill wouldn’t lower overall consumer costs and wouldn’t provide adequate protection for those with pre-existing conditions. He also expressed concerns that deep cuts in Medicaid over the next decade could threaten the survival of already struggling rural hospitals and nursing homes. (Mclean, 7/18)

Republicans needed at least 50 votes — Vice President Mike Pence would break a tie — to pass their repeal and replace effort. But senators were divided on the bill, with some saying it didn’t do enough to roll back Obama’s signature legislation, and others arguing it was too harsh and would kick their constituents off their current plans. (Welsh, 7/17)

As one senator’s health care emergency upended what was supposed to be an action-packed week for the Senate health care bill, Capitol Hill’s denizens began rebooking Monday. Like T.J. Petrizzo, a lobbyist whose clients include children’s hospitals and cancer centers. On Monday afternoon, he was sitting alone in a nearly deserted Senate cafeteria looking at his phone. (Bluth, 7/17)

The dollar’s doldrums are deepening. On Tuesday morning in Asia, investors dumped the U.S. currency after it emerged that Republican lawmakers were pulling the plug on a contentious health-care bill—the latest sign that President Donald Trump is having trouble implementing his policy agenda. (Vaishampayan, 7/18)

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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