Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Repeal, Replace And Monday-Morning Quarterbacking
The Washington Post: The Single Biggest Lesson From Repeal-And-Replace
Congressional Republicans' misguided effort to reshape the U.S. health-care system, which appeared to collapse early Friday, had the virtue of clarifying where the country stands nearly two decades into the 21st century: Americans want universal health-care coverage, including for the poor and the sick, and they expect the government to ensure that it is provided. Republicans and Democrats can argue about how to meet this end — but if they are wise they will no longer dispute the goal. (7/28)
Los Angeles Times: Ding Dong. Repeal And Replace Is Dead. (For Now)
Early Friday morning, the U.S. Senate came within one thin vote of dropping a megaton legislative bomb on the health insurance markets serving roughly 1 in 10 Americans. Republican senators were so eager to keep their promise to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, yet so unwilling to compromise on a coherent approach to unwinding the law, that 49 of them backed an eight-page, lowest-common-denominator proposal that seemingly every major healthcare trade association and patient-advocacy group had warned would be disastrous for all concerned. The measure even attracted the support of three senators who’d dubbed it a fraud and pledged to vote “yes” only if they were assured the House wouldn’t pass the thing into law. (7/28)
Bloomberg: RIP, Repeal And Replace
Though truthfully, the whole process reads less like a saga than a Christopher Buckley novel. You have a neophyte president who doesn’t know how Washington works, and doesn’t care to learn, and therefore provides none of the leadership that is normally necessary to get a major policy bill through Congress. You have a Republican caucus that spent six years promising to repeal Obamacare without bothering to make plans for, or get a consensus on, how they would actually do so. And thus we were repeatedly treated to the incredible sight of bills that literally no one in the legislature actually wanted, even as they were voting to move them forward. The only way people could bring themselves to cast that “Aye” was by nervously assuring each other that somewhere down the line, someone would come to their senses and stop this thing from actually becoming the law of the land -- the Senate, or the conference committee, or in the most desperate scenario, perhaps the president could … well, I’m sure the conference committee will come up with something we can actually like. (Megan McArdle, 7/28)
The Washington Post: The 7,150 Nuns Who Fought Against Trumpcare
The votes from Republican Sens. Susan Collins, John McCain and Lisa Murkowski to stop their party’s repeal-Obamacare juggernaut were demonstrations of genuine courage. The appearance of this virtue in a dark time is not necessarily miraculous, but I couldn’t help noticing the striking intervention in this debate by 7,150 American nuns who called the Senate GOP’s core proposal “the most harmful legislation for American families in our lifetimes.” (E.J. Dionne, 7/30)
Sacramento Bee: This Is What Should Happen Next On Health Care
Now that the Obamacare repeal has crashed and burned in the U.S. Senate, this is what would happen if we had a president who knew how to govern and a Congress that could work together:There would be a bipartisan summit to come up with ways to fix and strengthen the Affordable Care Act to slow rising premiums and create more competition in California and across the country. (7/28)
The New York Times: Susan Collins And Lisa Murkowski, The Health Vote Heroines
Were you expecting the Republican health care bill to go down with such a thud this week? Definitely a moment to remember. Unless, of course, you accept Donald Trump’s interesting theory that it all worked out exactly the way he wanted. “I said from the beginning — let Obamacare implode and then do it,” the president told a group of law enforcement officers on Friday. This was part of the White House celebration of “American Heroes Week,” which was highlighted by Trump’s surprise effort to discriminate against transgender volunteers in the military. (Gail Collins, 7/28)
Boston Globe: Murkowski And Collins Went Maverick Long Before McCain
Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska went maverick long before [John] McCain. On Tuesday, the two women resisted enormous pressure from President Trump and party leaders when they voted “no” on a procedural measure to open debate on Obamacare repeal. (Joan Vennochi, 7/28)
Arizona Republic: John McCain Didn't Defect, He Led (But No One Followed)
When the senator went against the Republican Party line and against President Donald Trump, and cast a vote he knew would kill the awful “skinny repeal” bill meant to gut the Affordable Care Act, McCain did not, as some critics said, “defect.” He led. (EJ Montini, 7/29)
