Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
McConnell Concedes GOP May Consider Bipartisan Solution To Stabilizing Marketplace
The Associated Press: McConnell To Consider Bipartisan Plan To Pay Health Insurers
A week after an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'd consider a bipartisan effort to continue payments to insurers to avert a costly rattling of health insurance markets. McConnell told reporters Saturday there is "still a chance" the Senate could revive the measure to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but he acknowledged the window for that is rapidly closing. (8/5)
Bloomberg: Senate Republicans Nod At Bipartisan Push For Insurer Payments
The Senate health committee will begin bipartisan hearings in early September on stabilizing and strengthening the Affordable Care Act’s individual insurance market, Republican Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and top Democrat Patty Murray of Washington said in a joint statement on Aug. 1. (Brody, 8/6)
San Francisco Chronicle: Senate Republicans Open To Bipartisan Talks On Health Care
Senate Republicans are willing to consider a bipartisan approach to strengthening the individual insurance market under Obamacare, even as President Trump is deciding whether to end payments for it. ...Trump has tweeted to his 35.2 million followers that senators, who are away from Washington for their summer recess, shouldn’t vote on anything else until they’ve completed the effort to revamp President Barack Obama’s signature health law. (Brody, 8/6)
The Hill: Five Tough Decisions For The GOP On Healthcare
While the GOP attempt at repealing ObamaCare has stalled for now, some in the party are not giving up. "This ain't over by a long shot … we won't rest until we end the ObamaCare nightmare once and for all,” Vice President Pence said at the Tennessee GOP 2017 Statesmen's Dinner Thursday, according to a pool report. (Roubein and Weixel, 8/6)
Politico: Tax Writers See Peril In Trump's Obamacare Persistence
Republicans acknowledge that the aggressive timeline they have set up for overhauling the tax code this fall leaves them little room for error. There could be one problem with that: Obamacare isn’t going away. ... That’s left key Senate tax writers frustrated that there’s potentially another issue to take precious time away from their tax reform efforts. (Becker and Lorenzo, 8/7)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: With Health Care Bill In Limbo, GOP Shifts Into Push For Major Tax Reform
As a GOP plan to overhaul the Obama health law foundered in the U.S. Senate, Republicans in Congress quickly shifted their focus in recent days to a new goal, getting a major tax reform to the President’s desk, though many on Capitol Hill believe the undertaking could be more complicated – and includes more political pitfalls – than the derailed debate on Obamacare. ...What are the chances of that happening, and when will see the details on the GOP plan? (Dupree, 8/6)
And in other news —
The Wall Street Journal: Congressional Recess, Full Plate Keep The Heat On GOP Lawmakers
Congressional Republicans plan to use the next four weeks away from Washington making a public case for a sweeping rewrite of the tax code, an ambitious legislative undertaking they hope will heal divisions that opened when the party’s signature health-care bill collapsed. But at home in their districts, they face pressures that could make it hard to focus on taxes. Many of their constituents and party activists blame Congress, more than President Donald Trump, for the health-care stalemate and are pressing them to find a resolution. And before they can do anything, lawmakers face a load of time-sensitive fiscal business: hashing out a budget, funding the government and raising the federal debt limit. (Hughes and Hook, 8/6)
The Wall Street Journal: Susan Collins Talks Health Care At Camp Kotok
Health insurance reform isn’t dead yet, said U.S. Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who cast one of the three pivotal GOP “no” votes that defeated her party’s efforts to repeal Obamacare. About a dozen Senators from both parties have met for three private dinners to talk about a potential compromise, Ms. Collins said Aug. 4 at Camp Kotok, an annual gathering in northern Maine of investors, asset managers and economists hosted by David Kotok. (Loder, 8/5)
The Associated Press: Gov. LePage Stands By Criticism Of Senators Over Health Vote
Gov. Paul LePage said on Friday he is standing by an op-ed he wrote that slammed his state's two U.S. senators despite criticism from former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. Mitchell, a Democrat who served as majority leader from 1989 to 1995, issued a rare public political statement Thursday in which he said Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King were right to vote against a proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act. (8/4)
The Hill: GOP Senator: Trump May Have Been Only One Who Didn't Realize Healthcare Complexity
The Republican chairman of the Senate Health Committee says that President Trump may have been the only person who didn't understand the complexity of healthcare policy. "As the president said, nobody knew how complicated this was," Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) told The New York Times' "The New Washington" podcast. (Greenwood, 8/5)
The Hill: Collins, Murkowski Glad They Had Each Other For No Votes On Healthcare
GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) said they were glad that they had each other when they voted against moving forward on the Republican healthcare bill last week, the pair said Thursday on CNN. The two were the only Republicans who voted against the motion to proceed on the healthcare vote, leading the Senate to begin debating on their plans to repeal and replace ObamaCare. The Republicans eventually failed to pass even their watered-down "skinny" repeal plan after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined them in voting against the measure. (Eberhardt, 8/4)
