The mood among House Republicans is jubilant Thursday morning as they prepare to vote for their bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The first test vote easily passed along party lines, with a final vote on the bill expected in the 1 p.m. ET hour on the legislation, would dismantle the pillars of the Affordable Care Act and make sweeping changes to the nation’s health care system.
The final vote will be very close, but many Republicans were already in a celebratory mode in a morning meeting in the House basement. The theme song to “Rocky” played as members filed in.
Rep. Daniel Webster described House Speaker Paul Ryan as almost “giddy.”
Asked if he will be relieved when all of this is over, Virginia Rep. Dave Brat said simply: “Highly!”
When it came time for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to speak in the meeting, an image of Gen. George S. Patton popped up on the LCD screens in the room. McCarthy proceeded to roll off several motivational quotes from Patton to urge the conference along.
There was also high praise for President Donald Trump: New York Rep. Chris Collins credited the President for getting the bill across the finish line. “This was Donald J. Trump, the negotiator getting it done,” Collins said.
Thursday marks a political milestone — one that has painfully eluded Trump and House leaders for months. The controversial health care bill delivered Trump the biggest political defeat of this short presidency in March, when the legislation had to be yanked from the House floor because it simply didn’t have enough support. Under pressure from an antsy Trump looking to score a big political victory, Republican leaders tried again last week, hoping to to get to 216 votes ahead of the President’s symbolically important 100-day mark in office. That effort, too, failed.
But despite the public confidence, the GOP’s political gamble to rush the legislation through is already emerging as the party’s biggest political liability ahead of 2018.
And the party’s severe struggles over the past few months to garner the votes needed to pass the bill in the House has cast a blanket of nervous energy over the party.
Republican whips Thursday on the House floor are lining up their votes and trying to persuade some lawmakers not ready to back the bill. Majority Whip Steve Scalise was spotted lobbying GOP Rep. Tom Massie. And Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows and Rep. Raul Labrador were flanking Rep. Justin Amash.
Democrats, for their part, are poised to hold the health care bill over the heads of Republicans next year.
As anxious reporters stood outside of Ryan’s office Wednesday night, waiting for guidance on whether there would be a vote Thursday morning, Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings approached the group to joke that he had a “breaking” announcement.
Republicans had the votes on their health care bill, Cummings said. His punchline: And Democrats will take back the House in 2018.
As originally introduced, the GOP bill would leave 24 million fewer people insured by 2026 than under Obamacare, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said. There will not be a new CBO report before Thursday’s vote on the legislation.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blasted the bill and timing of the vote.
“Forcing a vote without a CBO score shows that Republicans are terrified of the public learning the full consequences of their plan to push Americans with pre-existing conditions into the cold,” Pelosi said in a statement. “But tomorrow, House Republicans are going to tattoo this moral monstrosity to their foreheads, and the American people will hold them accountable.”
What’s in the bill?
The GOP health care bill would eliminate Obamacare taxes on the wealthy, insurers and others, and get rid of the individual mandate imposed by Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act. Instead of the Obamacare subsidies that are tied to income and premiums, the GOP plan would provide Americans with refundable tax credits based mainly on age to purchase health insurance.
The legislation would also allow insurers to charge higher premiums to those in their 50s and early 60s, compared to younger consumers.
It would also significantly curtail federal support for Medicaid and allow states to require able-bodied adults to work. After 2020, states that expanded Medicaid would no longer receive enhanced federal funding to cover low-income adults, and those that hadn’t expanded would be immediately barred from doing so.
And it would allow states to relax some key Obamacare protections of those with pre-existing conditions, which are among the health reform law’s most popular provisions. States could apply for waivers to allow insurers to offer skimpier policies that don’t cover the 10 essential health benefits mandated by Obamacare. Also, insurers would be able to charge higher premiums to those with medical issues if they let their coverage lapse. States requesting waivers would have to set up programs — such as high-risk pools — to protect insurers from high-cost patients.
An eleventh-hour amendment that helped seal the missing GOP votes would add $8 billion over five years to fund high-risk pools and go toward patients with pre-existing conditions in states that seek waivers under the Republican legislation. The legislation already included $130 billion in the fund.
However, the GOP bill doesn’t touch one another beloved piece of Obamacare — letting children stay on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26.