Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lawmakers Went Out On Political Limb Only To Watch It Disintegrate Beneath Them
The New York Times: Health Bill’s Failure Leaves Supporters In A Political Jam Back Home
They went to unusual, even dangerous lengths to support President Trump’s unpopular health care bill, facing down protesters at home and begging for special accommodation from House leaders in Washington. John Faso of New York negotiated a side deal for his state in exchange for backing it. Mike Coffman was the lone Colorado lawmaker to endorse the bill, while his Republican neighbors agonized and stalled. (Burns, 3/25)
Los Angeles Times: Failure Of Their Healthcare Bill Leaves Republicans Running Obamacare. That Could Open The Way For Bipartisan Changes
Unable to kill the Affordable Care Act, Republicans may now have to fix it. The White House and even GOP members of Congress risk a huge political backlash if they allow the healthcare law to come apart, as President Trump has predicted it will. That leaves Republicans with a strong incentive to take steps to shore up Obamacare insurance markets, keep premiums in check and preserve consumer protections in a way that would be acceptable to both sides of the aisle in Congress. (Levey, 3/25)
McClatchy: Mitch McConnell Is A Top Republican Untouched By GOP’s Health Care Mess
One key Republican Washington power player – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – emerges from the wreckage of Friday’s GOP effort to overhaul Obamacare relatively unscathed. While McConnell had supported the bill, which failed to get enough Republican support and was pulled from the House floor, the Kentucky Republican never asked his 52-member majority to put anything at risk for it. Now none of the senators have to cast a vote either way. (Tate, 3/24)
CQ Roll Call: Lawmakers Predict Health Care Bill Will Be 2018 Campaign Issue
Republicans won’t have a recorded vote on leadership’s health care plan but that doesn’t mean their position on it won’t be used against them in campaign ads in 2018. Former National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden, now chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, acknowledged as much Friday evening. “Everybody staked out their position so they’ll be able to reap the benefit of that position or take the hit,” he told CQ Roll Call. Some Republicans actually do have recorded votes that will be used against them. (Pathe, 3/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Iowa Congressman Faces Pressure From Donors, Backlash From GOP For Not Backing Health Bill
Iowa Rep. David Young twice ran for Congress promising to do whatever he could to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This week, he had planned to vote against a bill to replace it, and thus keep Obamacare the law of the land. (Epstein, 3/25)
Politico Pro: Democrats Eye Comstock's Swing Seat After Obamacare Repeal Failure
Rep. Barbara Comstock dodged constituents, declined town halls and avoided taking a public stance on the Republican Party’s increasingly unpopular health care bill in the months leading up to its collapse.Her last-minute decision to oppose it — after other GOP moderates had spoken out and sealed the bill’s doom — is unlikely to protect her in 2018. Democrats had already smelled blood, targeting Comstock after Hillary Clinton won her increasingly purple district in northern Virginia by 10 percentage points. (Ehley, 3/27)
CQ Magazine: Red Districts With The Most Constituents On Expanded Medicaid
While House GOP leadership failed to come up with a framework for dismantling the Affordable Care Act that could win enough support among the most conservative representatives to pass, another element of the party has been sitting quietly on the sidelines. Reticence is understandable when more than 40 percent of your constituents have incomes low enough to qualify for Medicaid under the 2010 health care law’s expansion. (Leonard, 3/27)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin GOP House Members Spared From Difficult Health Care Vote
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to pull his party’s Obamacare replacement bill spared his fellow Republicans from voting on an unpopular piece of legislation that lacked the votes to pass the House or Senate... Ryan’s fellow Republicans from Wisconsin were mostly prepared to support his controversial health care bill. Jim Sensenbrenner and Glenn Grothman planned to vote yes. (Golbert, 3/24)
Minnesota Public Radio: Whether Political Victory Or Disappointment, Some Minnesotans Still Hope For Health Care Changes
Following news that the Republicans' health care bill would not advance, some Minnesotans were quick to applaud the development, while others expressed disappointment that Obamacare would remain the law of the land. But many in both parties are still hoping to see improvements to the healthcare system. (Cox, 3/25)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Failed Health Plan Shadows GOP Georgia Special Election Debate
The blast radius of the failed healthcare measure shook up a Republican debate over who should succeed Tom Price in the special election to represent his suburban Atlanta district, as several top GOP contenders sparred over what Congress should have done. The four candidates running to represent the suburban Atlanta district at the Sunday debate split on the next steps, with some blaming the GOP establishment for the failure of the measure and others praising the coalition of moderates and conservatives who ultimately scuttled the proposal. (Bluestein, 3/27)
Austin American-Statesman: Doggett: Obamacare Fight Led To Victory For Resistance But GOP ‘
Austin’s U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett might feel like the force is strong with Democrats on Friday after a GOP attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act – aka Obamacare – foundered, but he warned that the “Empire will strike back.” Doggett’s statement came just after U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he had pulled the President Trump-backed American Health Care Act because of a lack of Republican votes. (Jankowski, 3/24)
Meanwhile, some ads cause embarrassment after the health plan was pulled —
The Washington Post: ‘Awkward’: After Health-Care Bill Dies, Ads Air Thanking Republicans For Replacing Obamacare
The decision on Friday to abruptly pull the bill, known as the American Health Care Act, was a stunning defeat for House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and President Trump, who campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace the nation’s health-care law, known as Obamacare. But hours after the decision, television ads aired reflecting a different reality. (Schmidt, 3/27)
Cox Media Group: TV Ads Prematurely Thank Congressmen For Repealing Obamacare
Television advertisements thanking Republican representatives for repealing the Affordable Care Act on Friday has the conservative American Action Network PAC slightly red-faced. President Donald Trump and the Republican leadership suffered a major setback in their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act when Speaker Paul Ryan pulled his bill to repeal Obamacare from the House floor after support began to crumble. (D'Angelo, 3/25)
