Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parsing The Politics: Mitch McConnell's 'Misery'; Is It Time 'Tear Up' The Bill And 'Start Over'?
The Washington Post: The Health-Care Debate We’re Missing Amid All Those Memes
The Senate health-care bill, which was scuttled Tuesday until after July 4, was doomed by two narratives: Republicans are mean, and poor people would be dropping like flies. Assisting the opposition was none other than President Trump, who called the earlier version passed by the House “mean.” Trump met with Senate Republicans on Tuesday afternoon to plot their move to repeal and replace Obamacare, which remains the GOP’s objective. (Kathleen Parker, 6/27)
The New York Times: The Misery Of Mitch McConnell
For a good laugh, or rather cry, zip backward to the beginning of 2014, when Democrats still had control of the Senate, and listen to Mitch McConnell’s lamentations about the way they were doing business. “Major legislation is now routinely drafted not in committee but in the majority leader’s conference room,” he declaimed on the Senate floor. “Bills should go through committee.” He pledged that if Republicans were “fortunate enough to gain the majority next year, they would.” (Frank Bruni, 6/28)
The New York Times: The Health Care Hoax Has Been Exposed, Senator McConnell
Senator Mitch McConnell hoped that keeping his wretched bill to destroy the Affordable Care Act secret until the last minute would make it easier for him to railroad fellow Republicans. The facts the majority leader had hoped to suppress came back to bite him on Monday when the Congressional Budget Office released a detailed review of the bill that confirmed what governors, doctors and indeed the American public had been saying for days: The bill is a cruel hoax that would help the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the poorest. (6/27)
The Wall Street Journal: Tear Up The GOP Health Bill And Start Over
The fate of the Affordable Care Act may be determined this week, and no one can claim ignorance of the stakes. Republican leaders in the Senate drafted their proposed replacement, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, behind closed doors without hearings or committee consideration. But the Congressional has pierced the Orwellian packaging to make clear the consequences of the coming vote. Senators cannot say they weren’t warned, and neither can the American people. (William A. Galston, 6/27)
The Washington Post: Why ‘Repeal And Replace’ Will Become ‘Tweak And Move On’
Two Junes ago, when the Supreme Court upheld, 6 to 3, a challenged provision of the Affordable Care Act, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, vented: “Congress wrote key parts of the Act behind closed doors. . . . Congress passed much of the Act using a complicated budgetary procedure known as ‘reconciliation,’ which limited opportunities for debate and amendment, and bypassed the Senate’s normal 60-vote filibuster requirement. . . . As a result, the Act does not reflect the type of care and deliberation that one might expect of such significant legislation.” Now, however, Republicans run things, so . . . (George F. Will, 6/27)
The Washington Post: Why The Senate’s Health-Care Plan Wouldn’t Work In The Real World
Monday’s report on the Senate health-care bill from the Congressional Budget Office said that 22 million people would lose coverage under the plan and that coverage in the non-group market would become far stingier than it is today. By Tuesday the bill had been pulled back for revision. The quick sequence was revealing: Senators clearly could use some extra time to figure out how to bridge a giant gap between policy theory and reality. (Drew Altman, 6/27)
Los Angeles Times: Is Mitch McConnell Trying To Tank Trumpcare?
That sounds unlikely, I know. McConnell prides himself on his prowess as a legislative strategist; he likes nothing better than crushing his opponents. Repealing Obamacare was one of the GOP’s core promises in 2016, and most conservatives (including McConnell, presumably) still believe in the cause. Equally important, McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan desperately wanted to pass a healthcare bill with a big tax cut at its center. That’s the core of the Republican economic agenda. (Doyle McManus, 6/28)
Chicago Tribune: What Republicans Love About Their Health Care Plan Has Nothing To Do With Health Care
Deemocrats these days must feel like Michael Dukakis, as famously played by Jon Lovitz in a debate with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush on "Saturday Night Live," when he said, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy." Less than a week after losing four special elections they thought they could win, based on President Donald Trump's plunging approvals with swing voters, Democrats face a new Senate Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. (Clarence Page, 6/27)
The Wall Street Journal: The GOP’s Schumer Option
Senate Republicans on Tuesday delayed a vote on their health-care bill until after the July 4 recess, and the timidity and opportunism of too many Senators suggest they may never get 50 GOP votes. We hope they understand that if they fail, Republicans will be entrusting their political health-care future to the brutal generosity of Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. (6/27)
