Parsing The Politics: How Will Cruz’s Amendment Play?; Republicans’ ‘Moment Of Truth’

Forbes: Senator Cruz's Healthcare Reform Proposal Creates A Monster "Income Cliff"
According to widespread media reports, Senate Republicans are considering an amendment to the proposed Better Care Reconciliation Act from Texas Senator Ted Cruz under which, if a health insurer offered at least one Obamacare-like plan with community rating, it could also offer a plan in which healthier people would pay lower rates than the sick. Although this proposal might please conservatives otherwise worried that the BCRA is but "Obamacare-lite" and although it might mollify some moderates -- if you like your Obamacare you can kind of keep it -- it creates an "income cliff." People who need expensive medical care will be far worse off if they make more money. (Seth Chandler, 7/3)

The New York Times: Going Small On Health Care
Now it is the Republican Party’s turn to face a health care choice. They can forge ahead with the “repeal” (really just the reform) of Obamacare, notwithstanding the massive unpopularity of the legislation being negotiated in the Senate, on the theory that they’re more insulated than the Democrats were in 2010 (after all, they won their recent special-election squeaker) and that the policy achievement is worth the political pain. Or they take the road the Democrats did not, and retreat to a much smaller bill instead. The case for retreat is stronger than it was for Obama’s party. (Ross Douthat, 7/1)

The Washington Post: Republicans Face A Moment Of Truth On Taxes
It’s gut check time for Republicans. For years, they’ve claimed the Affordable Care Act has been choking the economy, thanks in large part to the new taxes the law levied on investors. And for decades, they’ve railed against the evils of taxation, arguing it feeds a bloated government while choking the nation’s economy and infringing on individual freedom. Now that they have the power to actually do something about those loathed tax levies, however, they’re looking a bit wobbly. (Elizabeth Winkler, 6/30)

The Washington Post: How Congress Could Pass A Bipartisan Health Bill People Actually Like
In arguing for the Senate health-care bill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) reportedly warned his fellow Republicans that if they didn’t pass it, they’d have to work with Democrats to shore up the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges. It’s true that abandoning ACA repeal would be a big psychological blow for a party that has campaigned on little else for the past four election cycles. But giving up on repeal would open the possibility of meaningful action on health care that could gain the support of a bipartisan congressional majority — and would be popular with the public, too. (David Cutler, 6/30)

The Baltimore Sun: McConnell's Threat
The Senate majority leader who worked tirelessly to keep any Republicans from supporting Obamacare is now talking about working with Democrats on his health bill? That’s rich. (7/3)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Delaying The Senate’s Health Care Bill Is A Good Thing
The Senate won’t be voting on a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act by July 4. And that’s a good thing. The bill that was moving forward had too many flaws, didn’t fix anything in the ACA and didn’t meet many of President Donald Trump’s promises for health care reform. (Ernst-Ulrich Franzen, 7/2)

Boston Globe: Two Unexpected Reasons That Obamacare Repeal Is On Life Support
If the GOP’s efforts to repeal Obamacare do fail, there’ll be plenty of reasons why. But over the last week, two surprising explanations stand out: the resoluteness of Republican moderates and the strategic failures of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. (Michael A. Cohen, 6/30)

The New York Times: The Blood On A Tax Cut
Pretend you are that most improbable of combinations — a lovable billionaire. In other words, you’re Warren Buffett. The politicians who worship guys like you have another treat in store: They will cut your most recent tax bill by $679,999, making you even wealthier. But it comes with a price. A fellow American of a certain age making $56,000 a year would have to pay three times more in annual health care premiums — $20,500 — to help finance your windfall. ... Such is the bargain — your health care for my tax cut — that Republicans have proposed with their overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. (Timothy Egan, 6/30)

The Washington Post: If This Scam Works As Planned, Republicans Could Still Destroy Obamacare
One key battleground right now is the question of whether GOP leaders will try to woo these moderates by getting rid of the GOP bill’s repeal of one of the ACA’s big taxes on the wealthy: the tax on investment income, which hits top earners. ... But here’s the thing: Even if Republicans do restore the investment tax, it could have a relatively minuscule impact on the overall loss of coverage the GOP bill would produce. Indeed, it might only restore a meager 22 percent of the Medicaid funding, according to one expert I spoke with. (Greg Sargent, 7/3)

The Washington Post: The Swamp Has Taken Over The Repeal Of Obamacare
The “swamp” is winning. Republicans are now breaking frequent promises to repeal Obamacare. Last week, the Senate Budget Committee rolled out the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the upper chamber’s version of Obamacare repeal. Except the bill only modifies Obamacare subsidies, bails out insurance companies, likely keeps Medicaid expansion and does nothing to lower premiums. (Adam Brandon, 6/30)

The New York Times: A Price For The G.O.P.’s Health Care Insanity
Barack Obama inherited a broken health care model and made it worse, unless you count shunting millions of people into Medicaid as a triumph. For all the liberal angst about the Republican House and Senate bills, they are only tinkering with the same unfixable formula. The only genuinely promising reform in the Republican health bills are proposals to nearly double contribution limits for heath savings accounts and allow them to be used to pay for premiums. Enrollment in tax-deductible, investable H.S.A.s has roughly doubled since Obamacare took effect, to about 20 million, because they help cover out-of-pocket costs for low-premium, high-deductible plans. (Bret Stephens, 6/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Obamacare Could Easily Be Fixed With A Few Bipartisan Remedies
Nearly everything people most dislike about the current health care law would be made worse by the Senate Republicans’ effort to repeal it. And just about everything people like about the law would be unraveled. This paradox helps explain why Republicans are foundering in their seven-year effort to undo the Affordable Care Act, and why for the first time since it was enacted under President Barack Obama, the law is finally popular. (Carolyn Lochhead, 7/1)

Arizona Republic: Obamacare Was Destined To Fail. Why Repeat That Mistake Now?
Republicans who steadfastly oppose Obamacare should not repeat its greatest mistake. That law was deeply flawed from the beginning because it imposed a major policy reform on the entire country without a single Republican vote. (7/2)

Arizona Republic: Don't Buy Planned Parenthood's New Ad On Healthcare Reform
Planned Parenthood has launched a misleading ad campaign on the issue featuring a woman who self-discovered a lump in her breast and turned to Planned Parenthood. ... The ad makes it seem like Planned Parenthood plays a major role in cancer detection. In reality, they play no such role nationally or in most communities, especially rural areas. (Cathi Herrod and Marorie Dannenfelser, 6/30)

Austin American-Statesman: Senate’s ACA Repeal Bill Looks A Lot Like The House
Senate Republicans promised to write a different – if not better — health care bill after the House delivered its widely-criticized attempt at an Affordable Care Act repeal in May. Instead, the Mitch McConnell-led Senate proposes much of the same: a bill, named the Better Care Reconciliation Act, that would provide tax breaks for the wealthy and would hit even harder than the House version those most in need of medical insurance – including rural America, people between the ages of 50 and 60, the sick and the poor. (7/1)

USA Today/Detroit Free Press: It's Hard To Repeal And Replace Obamacare. Declaration Of Independence? Hmmm.
The Republicans who control the White House and Congress have had a lot of trouble agreeing on a health care bill — so it's hard to imagine them coming together around something as momentous as the Declaration of Independence. But not impossible. Let's imagine how the fractious GOP might repeal and replace America's founding document. (Brian Dickerson, 7/5)