Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Not Willing To Pull Plug On Zombie Trumpcare When They Ran On Promises To Repeal Obamacare
Politico: Obamacare Repeal Bill Is The Zombie GOP Can’t Kill — Or Bring Back To Life
Republicans in Congress for the first time are lowering expectations for how much of Obamacare they can repeal and how quickly they can do it. As they meet constituents back home, GOP lawmakers seem trapped between the reality of their failed repeal effort and President Donald Trump’s renewed promises this week to finish off Obamacare before taking on tax reform. Vice President Mike Pence is also still trying to keep the repeal dream alive, working with conservatives on new tweaks to the stalled House bill. But even if the ultra-conservatives come on board, there’s no sign that the moderate Republicans needed to pass a bill are ready to sign on. (Haberkorn and Cheney, 4/14)
Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) is the latest lawmaker to face the heat over health care at his town hall —
The Associated Press: House Chairman Skeptical Of Conservatives' Health Care Idea
A House committee chairman who's a leading author of the mired Republican health care bill said Thursday he's skeptical about proposals the Trump administration and conservative GOP lawmakers have discussed in hopes of breathing life into the legislation. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., directed his skepticism at suggestions that states be allowed to sidestep the ban in President Barack Obama's health care law against insurers charging seriously ill people higher premiums than healthy customers. (Fram, 4/13)
The Washington Post: Republican House Leader Avoids Selling GOP Health-Care Plan At Home
“Why don’t you go back to Washington, [and] in the spirit of bipartisanship, grow a pair, sit down with [House Democratic leader] Nancy Pelosi and say, ‘Let’s fix Obamacare,’ ” said one middle-aged man at Columbia Gorge Community College, where about 500 people gathered. A few in the rowdy crowd at the next town hall seemed to know that Walden, as the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, played a pivotal role in crafting the GOP’s American Health Care Act, which would have rolled back Obamacare’s system of subsidies and phased out that law’s Medicaid expansion. (Winfield Cunningham, 4/13)
