TrumpCare update: Trump calls it "mean", now wants changes; Senate keeps it secret

Trump Called House Health Care Bill ‘Mean’ in Meeting with Senators
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...ealth-care-bill-mean-meeting-senators-n771881

WASHINGTON — In a meeting with Republican senators Tuesday to discuss health care reform, President Donald Trump gave them support to move in a different direction from the House-passed version of the legislation which he described as "mean," according to two Senate aides whose bosses attended the lunch.

“He talked about making sure we have a bill that protects people with pre-existing conditions and helps people. We talked a little bit about the tax credit to make that work for low income elderly people," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who attended the meeting, said. "And he certainly is fine with us taking a different direction with what the house did."

After the House passed its bill last month, Trump took a victory lap, holding a news conference in the Rose Garden flanked by members of Congress whom he praised for passing a "great plan."

Tuesday's lunch meeting resulted in little tangible progress on how to gain the support of nearly all Republican senators needed for it to pass the Senate.

Fifteen senators traveled down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House to talk about the issue at a critical time in the crafting of legislation that would roll back aspects of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and replace it with Republican ideas.

Republican senators still disagree on major components of potential legislation, and the meeting with Trump did little to change their minds. Instead they expressed their concerns to a president who encouraged them to work out their differences, multiple senators who attended the meetings said.

“I think we have the same dynamic in the caucus that we’ve had for a long time — people who are in different places on how we fix Medicaid and other issues,” Thune told reporters after returning to the Capitol from the White House.

WASHINGTON — In a meeting with Republican senators Tuesday to discuss health care reform, President Donald Trump gave them support to move in a different direction from the House-passed version of the legislation which he described as "mean," according to two Senate aides whose bosses attended the lunch.

“He talked about making sure we have a bill that protects people with pre-existing conditions and helps people. We talked a little bit about the tax credit to make that work for low income elderly people," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who attended the meeting, said. "And he certainly is fine with us taking a different direction with what the house did."

After the House passed its bill last month, Trump took a victory lap, holding a news conference in the Rose Garden flanked by members of Congress whom he praised for passing a "great plan."

Tuesday's lunch meeting resulted in little tangible progress on how to gain the support of nearly all Republican senators needed for it to pass the Senate.

Fifteen senators traveled down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House to talk about the issue at a critical time in the crafting of legislation that would roll back aspects of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and replace it with Republican ideas.

Republican senators still disagree on major components of potential legislation, and the meeting with Trump did little to change their minds. Instead they expressed their concerns to a president who encouraged them to work out their differences, multiple senators who attended the meetings said.

“I think we have the same dynamic in the caucus that we’ve had for a long time — people who are in different places on how we fix Medicaid and other issues,” Thune told reporters after returning to the Capitol from the White House.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is protective of the Medicaid program that expanded under Obamacare in Ohio, said that the meeting did not bring senators closer to an agreement on a final bill.

“No that wasn’t the purpose of it,” Portman said.

At the beginning of the lunch, which was open to the press for a few minutes, Trump said that the Senate is coming up with “a phenomenal” bill.

But the definition of phenomenal hasn’t been agreed upon between senators. Differences still exist over how to deal with Medicaid and the expansion of the program authorized under Obamacare.

There seems to be agreement, however on protecting people with pre-existing conditions. Thune said Trump said senators have to “make sure” to protect them.

But ensuring people with pre-existing conditions have coverage and protecting people with Medicaid are expensive, leading to another major issue of contention — which Obamacare taxes to keep in place. The House bill repealed $1 trillion worth of Obamacare taxes while the Senate bill is likely to be more generous, costing more money.

Senator David Perdue, R-Georgia, said the disagreement on which taxes to keep is a dividing the conference. The major taxes include a tax on insurance companies, a medical device tax, a tax on investment income and an income tax on couples making more than $250,000 per year.

“That’s the part that’s moving around on us,” he said.

One division between Congress and Trump is the issue of cost-sharing reduction payments, which are subsidies that help low-income customers with insurance pay for out-of-pocket costs. Trump has threatened to halt the payments, a move that would cause insurance companies to exit the individual insurance market, leaving people without access to health insurance or fewer options.

When Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, was asked if Trump committee to continuing CSR payments, she said, “It was just a good discussion.”

Republican leaders are working to flesh out differences between senators on the content of a bill. They can agree that time is running out while insisting to reporters that no one is placing an “arbitrary deadline” on the process.

Some Republicans had hoped to vote on a bill before July, but time is running out. The Senate is mandated to have a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office before they vote. A CBO analysis of the bill will take ten to 14 days, meaning text of legislation would have to be sent to the CBO by the end of the week.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was skeptical that a bill could be written in the next three days. “By the end of this week? I don’t think so,” Hatch told reporters.

The remarkable steps Republicans are taking to obscure what’s in their health-care bill
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...heir-health-care-bill/?utm_term=.8a2221405a81

News on Tuesday that on-camera interviews might be significantly curtailed within the Capitol is an on-the-nose manifestation of something that had otherwise not attracted a lot of attention: The Republican effort to replace Obamacare was being put together almost entirely outside of the public’s ability to see what was happening.

When White House press secretary Sean Spicer first addressed the Republican health-care bill that would eventually pass the House last month, he was effusive that his party’s caucus on Capitol Hill would do things differently.

“One of the things that’s important to understand about this process, that’s very different from when the Democrats did it,” Spicer said, referring to the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

“Everybody can read it, and it’s going to go through what they call ‘regular order,’” he said. “We’re not jamming this down anybody’s throat. It’s going to go through a committee process. All parties involved, all representatives in the House will be able to have input into it. I think that’s the way to conduct this process, is to do it to allow people to watch the process happen in the committees, allow members of Congress to have their input in it, to make amendments, to see that we get the best bill that achieves the goal for the American people.”
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Only a small group of senators know what’s in the bill. An aide to one of the Republican senators working on it told Axios that no draft would be released because “we aren’t stupid” — meaning, apparently, that they knew better than to open up the bill to public criticism before the vote. The plan, apparently, is to send the bill to the CBO for a score before it is then released to the public.

 

Secrecy Surrounding Senate Health Bill Raises Alarms in Both Parties
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/...-bill-raises-alarms-in-both-parties.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — As they draft legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Senate Republican leaders are aiming to transform large sections of the American health care system without a single hearing on their bill and without a formal, open drafting session.

That has created an air of distrust and concern — on and off Capitol Hill, with Democrats but also with Republicans.

“I’ve said from Day 1, and I’ll say it again,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee. “The process is better if you do it in public, and that people get buy-in along the way and understand what’s going on. Obviously, that’s not the route that is being taken.”

The secrecy surrounding the Senate measure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act appears to be remarkable — at least for a health care measure this consequential. In 1993, President Bill Clinton empowered the first lady, Hillary Clinton, to assemble health care legislation in private, with input from a panel of more than 500 experts.

That approach won scathing reviews from lawmakers in both parties. But it took place at the White House, not in Congress. Once the Clintons’ health plan reached Capitol Hill, it died in the public spotlight.

Republican leaders this week defended their actions.

“Look, we’ve been dealing with this issue for seven years,” the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said. “It’s not a new thing.”

Mr. McConnell said there had been “gazillions of hearings on this subject” over the years — a less-than-precise tabulation that offered little comfort to Democrats who want hearings held now, in this particular year, on the contents of this particular bill.

In the summer of 2009, when Democratic members of Congress were defending their effort to remake the nation’s health care system, they were taunted by crowds chanting, “Read the bill, read the bill.”

Now Democrats say they would love to read the Republicans’ repeal bill, but cannot do so because Republicans have not exposed their handiwork to public inspection.

“They’re ashamed of the bill,” the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, said. “If they like the bill, they’d have brass bands marching down the middle of small-town America saying what a great bill it is. But they know it isn’t.”

The Senate’s decisions could have huge implications: Health care represents about one-sixth of the American economy, and about 20 million people have gained insurance under the 2010 health law, President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement.

In theory, the bill-writing process is open to any of the 52 Republican senators, but few seem to have a clear, coherent picture of what will be in it.

Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, offered a hint of the same frustration felt by Democrats seeking more information about the bill.

“I come from a manufacturing background,” Mr. Johnson said. “I’ve solved a lot of problems. It starts with information. Seems like around here, the last step is getting information, which doesn’t seem to be necessarily the most effective process.”

At a Senate hearing on Thursday, Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, said that he, too, had not seen the Senate bill.
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