Just because it was the weekend leading into the Independence Day holiday doesn’t mean there weren’t developments for Republicans’ plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Here’s what you might have missed:
Despite tweets on Friday from President Donald Trump and several high-profile Republican senators, the “repeal, then replace later” option is not really on the table and isn’t something that will be pursued by GOP leadership as they try to pull together the 50 votes they need to pass their health care plan. Negotiations are continuing as planned for a proposal that repeals and replaces Obamacare simultaneously.
As CNN reported Friday, there is almost no chance senators will vote on a health care bill the week senators return from recess. Expect the health care negotiations to be a multi-week process.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is sending several different proposals and basic outlines to the Congressional Budget Office to help speed up the final scoring process, as CNN reported several times last week. Although the top White House legislative official, Marc Short, said Sunday on Fox News that McConnell sent two bills to CBO for scoring; that’s not exactly the case. McConnell actually sent two outlines, plus several other proposals that may make it into a final bill.
The future of the proposal continues to depend on whether there is some compromise resolution on the same issues, including a softer landing for the eventual Medicaid reforms and how to craft some acceptable version of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s regulations amendment into the final proposal. In his comments Sunday, Short appeared to give the White House endorsement to Cruz’s regulations proposal, which if so would be no small thing.
Opioid funding and changes to regulations related to the use of health savings accounts appear to be settled and locked in.
A still looming, very real fight that will be coming when they return: whether to repeal the 3.8% investment tax in Obamacare or not. This is not at all settled, but sources tell CNN this is something that won’t be dealt with until Congress returns to Washington.