Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kaiser Health News: Analysis: GOP Failure To Replace The Health Law Was Years In The Making
After a week of high drama, culminating in a one-vote loss for a last-ditch bill, Senate Republicans conceded defeat early Friday morning in their seven-year push to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. The failure, at least for now, breaks one of the key promises Republicans have made to their voters since 2010, when the ACA first became law. (Rovner, 7/28)
Kaiser Health News: Podcast: What The Health? What A Week!
Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Sarah Kliff of Vox.com, and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News deconstruct the drama leading to the middle-of-the-night collapse of Senate Republicans’ last-ditch effort to overhaul the Affordable Care Act. (7/28)
Kaiser Health News: Timeline: Obamacare’s History Littered With Near-Death Experiences
Few laws have defied as many existential threats as the Affordable Care Act. A few hours ago, it survived again. (Rovner, 7/28)
Kaiser Health News: 5 Ways White House Can Use Its Muscle To Undercut Obamacare
About an hour after the Senate’s dramatic third attempt to repeal Obamacare fell short — and after almost eight months of repeated congressional attempts to dismantle it — President Donald Trump tweeted that it was only a matter of time before the law fell apart on its own. “As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!” the president wrote. (Luthra, 7/28)
The Associated Press: GOP Blame-Game Begins After Senate Sinks Health Care Drive
Republican finger-pointing commenced Friday after the Senate's dark-of-night defeat of the GOP's effort to repeal much of the Obama health care law, a startling vote that dealt a blow to President Donald Trump. "3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down," Trump tweeted early Friday after GOP leaders failed to patch party divisions and the Senate rejected a last-ditch bill to keep the effort alive. "As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!" (Werner and Fram, 7/28)
USA Today: Senate's Failed Effort To Repeal Obamacare: Top Takeaways
A dramatic, tumultuous, confusing, chaotic week of health care maneuvering in the Senate has ended with former president Barack Obama's signature health care law completely unchanged. Here are a few takeaways from the dramatic week. (Singer, 7/28)
The New York Times: On Policy, Republicans Find They Cannot Beat Something With Nothing
For years, Congressional Republicans have promised that their policy ideas, paired with a Republican in the White House, would lead to an instant obliteration of President Barack Obama’s health care law and the advent of something less expensive, more efficient and delivering better care. In the wee hours of Friday morning, that plan unraveled on the floor of the Senate, undermined by a toxic brew of a poorly assembled bill, the undeniable rising popularity of the current health care law among many Republican governors and voters, and a president who undermined their efforts at every turn, spending the final crucial days threatening the senators he was trying to woo while attacking an attorney general they admire. (Steinhauer, 7/28)
CNN: The Stumbling, Bumbling Death Of The Republican Repeal Dream
For the last seven years, Republicans found common purpose in two simple words: "Repeal Obamacare." No matter the congressman (or senator), no matter the crowd they were speaking to, no matter the other prevailing political winds, the party could always depend on one thing: A pledge to get rid of the Affordable Care Act would be a sure-fire applause line. And a big one. (Cillizza, 7/28)
The New York Times: Why Health Care Policy Is So Hard
“Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” President Trump said that in February, yielding more than a few chuckles from pundits and late-night comedians. In fact, anyone who has spent some time thinking about the issue sees its complexity. With the collapse of the Senate health care bills this week, the president has certainly been reminded of it.But Mr. Trump’s epiphany raises some questions: Why is health care so complicated? How does it differ from most of the other goods and services that the economy produces? What makes health policy so vexing? (Mankiw, 7/28)
Los Angeles Times: McCain's Surprise Vote Doomed GOP Healthcare Bill, But Did It Open The Door For Senate Bipartisanship?
Sen. John McCain is usually happy to spar with reporters, but he ducked into an elevator ahead of the Senate healthcare vote late Thursday without saying a word about how he would vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, though, already knew the answer. (Mascaro, 7/28)
The New York Times: Republicans Try To Regroup After Health Care Failure, Democrats Exult
Hours after their seven-year pledge to dismantle the Affordable Care Act hurtled off the rails in the Senate, Republican lawmakers pointed fingers at their own on Friday for letting their voters down. Democrats exulted in blocking the repeal effort, at least for now. For House Republicans — who in May passed a bill, at no small political peril to several vulnerable members, to upend President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement — the message was clear: We did our job. And the Senate must not give up. (Flegenheimer, 7/28)
The Hill: McCain Urges 'A Fresh Start' On Healthcare Reform
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Friday is looking forward to "a fresh start" on healthcare reform after joining Democrats to defeat the Republican ObamaCare repeal bill overnight. He urged his Senate colleagues to put partisanship aside and "trust each other" as they look for a path forward. "I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to trust each other, stop the political gamesmanship, and put the healthcare needs of the American people first. We can do this," McCain said in a statement. (Carney, 7/28)
The Hill: Collins Doubles Down On Call For Bipartisan Fix To ObamaCare
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) doubled down Friday on her call for Republicans to work with Democrats to fix the flaws in the Affordable Care Act after the Senate rejected a scaled-back bill repealing parts of the healthcare law. In a lengthy statement released hours after the vote on the "skinny" repeal bill, Collins carefully outlined her objections to Republicans' recent efforts to overhaul the country's healthcare system. (Greenwood, 7/28)
The Associated Press: Collins: It's Time For Bipartisan Approach On Health Care
"Neither party has a monopoly on good ideas, and we must work together to put together a bipartisan bill that fixes the flaws in the ACA and works for all Americans," Collins said in a statement. (Sharp, 7/28)
The Hill: Schumer Expresses Hope For Bipartisan ObamaCare Fixes
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday urged Republicans to work across the aisle after the failure of their repeal bill. "I hope we can work together to make the system better in a bipartisan way," Schumer said at a press conference. (Sullivan, 7/28)
The Hill: Pelosi Thanks GOP Senators Who Voted Against ObamaCare Repeal
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) thanked the three GOP senators who broke with their party to kill the Senate's bill to repeal ObamaCare during a vote early Friday morning. In a press conference Friday, Pelosi thanked Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) for breaking with their party and standing up to the Trump administration. (Bowden, 7/28)
Politico: House Republicans Despair After Health Care Collapse
Speaker Paul Ryan had none of his Eagle Scout-like optimism. At a closed-door conference meeting with House Republicans hours after Sen. John McCain scuttled perhaps the last best hope of repealing Obamacare, Ryan read an excerpt from “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a song about sailors drowning in a 1975 shipwreck. He likened the tune to what he deemed the Senate’s tragic failure to repeal Obamacare. (Bade, Bresnahan and Cheney, 7/28)
The Associated Press: Paul Ryan Responds To The Failure Of The GOP Healthcare Bill
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that he's "disappointed and frustrated" by the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in the Senate. But Ryan said in a statement that "we should not give up" after promising for years to repeal and replace Obamacare. (7/28)
The Hill: Ryan Signals Readiness To Move To Tax Reform
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday signaled a pivot to tax reform, one day after the Republican effort to repeal ObamaCare collapsed in the Senate.Ryan urged Republicans not to give up on repealing and replacing the healthcare law, but his statement — coupled with comments from President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — suggest a shift for the GOP. (Marcos, 7/28)
Politico: Bipartisan House Group Meets Quietly On Obamacare
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. (Demko, 7/28)
Politico: Freedom Caucus Blasts Senate GOP's 'Failure' To Pass Obamacare Repeal
House Freedom Caucus members lashed out Friday morning at the Senate’s dramatic failure to move forward on an Obamacare repeal bill, complaining that their colleagues on the other side of Capitol Hill let the American public down. “Let's be clear about what's happened over the last 24 hours in the United States Senate. It was an abject failure of the United States Senate to do what America needs doing,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative House group, told CNN’s “New Day” Friday morning. He urged his Senate colleagues not to leave for August recess without making progress on health care and suggested that perhaps a change in Senate Republican leadership might be in order. (Nelson, 7/28)
The Hill: Conservative House Leader Urges GOP To Not Give Up On ObamaCare Repeal
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is urging Republicans not to give up on efforts to repeal ObamaCare even after a measure was defeated in the Senate. “I just think that we've got to regroup and continue to stay involved and find something that has 51 votes in the Senate that we can make work,” Meadows told reporters. (Sullivan, 7/28)
The Hill: GOP Rep: Last Night's Vote Doesn’t Help Folks That Are Hurting Under ObamaCare
Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.) blasted Democrats on Friday after the Senate failed to pass a "skinny" repeal of ObamaCare, arguing that Friday morning's vote did nothing to help the millions of Americans struggling to afford health insurance. (Bowden, 7/28)
CNN: Health Care State Of Play: What Happens Next
Congressional observers should feel wary of ever pronouncing GOP effort's on health care completely dead, as it's made people look dumb before in the last six months, but it's certainly deader than it's ever been. McConnell said on the floor it's time to move on -- and the Senate is doing just that. (Mattingly, 7/28)
Bloomberg: Now Trump May Try To Kill Obamacare Slowly
Obamacare survived another day after Senate Republicans failed to repeal the health law in a dramatic overnight vote. The White House could now try to kill it slowly. The surprise defection by Senator John McCain, who with fellow Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joined with Democrats to oppose the GOP “skinny repeal” bill early Friday morning, leaves Obamacare as the law of the land. But President Donald Trump, who’s supported a repeal all along, wasted no time to threaten to sabotage Obamacare. (Edney, 7/28)
Politico: How Trump's White House Can Still Undermine Obamacare
The administration for months has taken steps to undercut the Affordable Care Act independent from Congress. Friday's collapse of Senate Republicans' slimmed-down repeal bill could push President Donald Trump to escalate those efforts, possibly by taking aim at the law's individual mandate. (Pradhan, 7/28)
Politico: Democrats Curb Their Enthusiasm Over Obamacare Repeal Fail
Democrats minimized their celebrations Friday in the wake of the stunning implosion of the GOP’s Obamacare repeal efforts, putting the onus on Republicans to embrace bipartisan fixes to the health care law. After hammering President Donald Trump’s party for months over its move to push through an Obamacare repeal with only Republican votes, Democrats pulled back on the criticism and tried to take the high road. (Schor and Caygle, 7/28)
