Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bipartisan House group meets quietly on Obamacare

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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/28/house-group-obamacare-repeal-meeting-241083?utm_content=buffer90260&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

The Capitol building is pictured.

A bipartisan group of roughly 40 House members has been meeting quietly over the past month to explore ways to stabilize Obamacare — efforts that are expected to take on greater urgency after the shocking collapse of the Senate’s Obamacare bill early Friday morning.

“This is our window to be relevant on a very real issue that impacts our constituents,” said one Republican lawmaker in the group who requested anonymity. The negotiations among the so-called Problem Solvers caucus will resume this morning, the lawmaker said.

Obamacare’s shaky insurance markets are facing perilous limbo with no clear path forward on health care in Washington. The Senate repeal effort blew up last night after Arizona Sen. John McCain joined two other GOP senators in opposing a slimmed down bill eliminating parts of Obamacare.

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off crucial Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies, estimated at $7 billion this year, as soon as next month. That could lead to an exodus of insurers, who rely on those payments to reduce out-of-pocket costs for their poorest customers under Obamacare.

But some Republican lawmakers now controlling Washington fear they would take the blame for Obamacare’s problems, as polls have indicated. And Democrats are eager to stabilize President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

Roughly 25,000 Obamacare customers in 38 states are at risk of having no insurers willing to offer coverage next year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In many other places, Obamacare customers only have one insurance option.

The Problem Solvers caucus, led by Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), is about evenly split between Republican and Democratic lawmakers. It usually meets weekly as a full group, but a health care working group has been meeting over the past month on health care, the lawmaker said, declining to elaborate on the discussions.

Bipartisan efforts on health care coverage have been nearly impossible since Obamacare passed seven years ago with only Democratic votes. Republicans over the past six months pushed forward with efforts to abolish the Affordable Care Act without any input from Democrats, who have refused to cooperate unless wholesale repeal is taken off the table.

Sanders: I’m ‘absolutely’ introducing single-payer healthcare bill

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Sanders: I’m ‘absolutely’ introducing single-payer healthcare bill

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that he will “absolutely” introduce legislation on single-payer healthcare now that the Senate GOP’s bill to repeal ObamaCare has failed.

“Of course we are, we’re tweaking the final points of the bill and we’re figuring out how we can mount a national campaign to bring people together,” Sanders told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union.

Sanders promised to introduce a “Medicare for All” proposal once the debate over repealing ObamaCare ended. He is one of several progressive lawmakers who back the healthcare model that has divided Democratic lawmakers.

It’s unclear exactly when he will introduce the legislation. The Senate has two weeks remaining in sessions.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) attached an amendment to one version of the ObamaCare repeal bill Wednesday that would have created a single-payer healthcare system in the U.S. Daines does not support a single-payer system but used the model as a political maneuver.

Sanders’s spokesman slammed the amendment as a “sham” at the time and said Sanders and other Democrats would refuse to vote on the measure.

Price: Trump was joking about firing me

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http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/344512-price-trump-made-a-humorous-statement-about-firing-me

Price: Trump was joking about firing me

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Sunday brushed off President Trump’s remark last week that he might be fired if he is unable to get an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace measure through Congress.

“Oh, I think that statement was a humorous comment that the president made, but I think what it highlighted is the seriousness with which he takes this issue,” Price told host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

The secretary then pivoted to listing the flaws with the current healthcare law of the land.

“He understands the American people are hurting because of ObamaCare,” Price said. 

On Monday, Trump had said that he would use his now infamous line “you’re fired” on Price, a phrase that he popularized as host of the competitive reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

“Hopefully he’s going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as ObamaCare that’s really hurting us. He better. Oh, he better. Otherwise, I’ll say, ‘Tom you’re fired,’” Trump said during a speech at the National Boy Scout Jamboree. 

The Senate’s effort to pass an ObamaCare “skinny” repeal deal collapsed overnight on Friday.

Republican governor ‘glad’ GOP didn’t fulfill ObamaCare pledge now

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http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/344522-kasich-republicans-should-demand-participation-from-democrats?rnd=1501428524

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On Sunday the Republican governor of Ohio, John Kasich, said he’s “glad” the GOP did not fulfill a seven-year campaign promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare this week.

“To a degree, I am glad they didn’t fulfill this pledge right now, but they have to work on it. And this is where they should call Democrats in and they should demand Democrat participation,” Kasich told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

He went on to call for bipartisanship moving forward on healthcare efforts.

“Republicans are in the majority. They get to call the tune. But remember when they call the tune, they got to have a few Democrats singing in the choir,” he said.

The governor’s comments come after 48 Democrats and three Republicans in the Senate effectively killed current GOP efforts to repeal ObamaCare overnight on Friday.

Kasich has long pushed for bipartisan healthcare reform, and even went as far as joining forces with a bipartisan group of governors to speak out against Senate and House Republican versions of the repeal-and-replace bill.

The governor joins a group of politicians calling for a bipartisan path to healthcare reform.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who shocked onlookers when he voted against the Senate GOP’s “skinny” repeal bill on Friday, has called for senators to work together in “regular order.”

“Let’s trust each other. Let’s return to regular order. We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle,” he said earlier this week.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opened the door on Friday to working with Republicans on healthcare, a call she reiterated in a separate Sunday show appearance.

She said some of what Democrats heard during town halls, hearings and forums was consistent with the market stabilization section of the Senate GOP’s “Better Care and Reconciliation Act” (BCRA), including short- and long-term stability funds and cost-sharing subsidies.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/john-kasich-failure-of-senate-gop-to-pass-a-healthcare-deal-is-a-good-thing/article/2630138

 

Mulvaney: It’s White House policy Senate keeps focus on healthcare

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http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/344513-mulvaney-its-white-house-policy-that-nothing-gets-a-vote-before?rnd=1501422100

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White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that it’s official White House policy that nothing else gets a vote in Congress before healthcare.

“Yes,” it’s official policy that the Senate stay focused on ObamaCare reform before voting on anything else, Mulvaney told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union.

President Trump’s calls for Republican senators to prioritize passing a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare are “simply reflecting the mood of the people,” he said.

“So in the White House’s view they can’t move on in the Senate; in the people’s view they shouldn’t move on in the Senate,” Mulvaney said.

Republican Senate leadership indicated following the collapse of the latest effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare that it is time to move on from healthcare efforts to other legislative priorities. But Trump urged them this weekend not to give up.

“They should stay and work and figure out a way to solve this problem,” Mulvaney said.

He added that GOP senators had to stay on to work on the issue because they have promised to repeal ObamaCare ever since it was instated seven years ago. The Senate is remaining in session another two weeks.

“You do have ObamaCare, it is failing, it is hurting people, so not to change it allows that go forward,” Mulvaney said. “At the same time, you have the political consideration that you promised folks you’d do this for seven years, you cannot go back on that.

“So yes, they need to stay, they need to work, they need to pass something,” Mulvaney continued. “And I think that’s not only official White House policy on this, right now it’s sort of the national attitude towards it.”

Mulvaney’s comments come after Trump called for Republicans to pass an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill over the weekend, saying they were “quitters” if they didn’t do so.