Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Political Reverberations: How Graham-Cassidy Impacts The Health Care Debate
The Wall Street Journal: Republicans Get One Last Chance On ObamaCare Reform
For seven years Republicans promised to repeal ObamaCare, and now they have one last chance to deliver. A bill recently introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Dean Heller and Ron Johnson would eliminate some of ObamaCare’s most unpopular provisions and enact reforms that would lower costs, expand choices, promote federal fiscal responsibility, and give power back to states and consumers. ... The Graham-Cassidy bill’s biggest strength is the idea that states are uniquely equipped to design and implement health care programs that suit their residents. The bill would consolidate much of the federal funding given to states under ObamaCare’s coverage provisions—including money for its Medicaid expansion and subsidies to help people buy private insurance—into a single block grant, which states could use for a wide variety of health reforms. (Lanhee J. Chen, 9/20)
JAMA Forum: Republicans Will Own Whatever Happens To The ACA And Health Care Reform
As has become clear, “Repeal and Replace” of the Affordable Car Act (ACA), a mantra that provided such a unifying theme for Republicans when Democrats controlled the White House, has been much harder than Republicans expected when they achieved “full control” of the government. Republicans were barely able to pass a health care bill in the House despite their substantial majority over Democrats (240-194) and the Senate fell short of passing the so-called “skinny” repeal bill, HR 1628, which repealed only a limited portion of the ACA. (Gail Wilensky, 9/19)
The Washington Post: Lots Of Vulnerable House Republicans Come From States That Will Lose Under Cassidy-Graham
If the Senate passes Cassidy-Graham, its latest attempt to repeal Obamacare, the legislation will then go to the House for a vote. If that happens, Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has vowed to engineer its quick passage in the lower chamber, too .... certain states are going to be hit with major losses if this bill becomes law. And it turns out that those states that would lose out happen to be heavy with incumbent House Republicans whose seats are vulnerable in 2018. Will those vulnerable House Republicans vote for a bill that drains their states of huge sums of money that could have been used to cover their own constituents? (Sarah Posner and Greg Sargent, 9/20)
The Wall Street Journal: The Republicans Who May Save ObamaCare
Like Lazarus, the Republican effort to repeal ObamaCare has risen from the dead. Pundits dutifully filled out the toe tag in July, after a repeal-and-replace bill failed to pass the Senate. Now comes new legislation championed by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, which just might get the 50 GOP votes needed for Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie and pass the bill. ... Senate passage would clear the way to ending the individual and employer mandates, repealing the medical-device tax, and phasing out the ObamaCare exchanges and their highly prescriptive regulations. ... The danger is that there are at least four Republican senators at risk of voting “no.” (Karl Rove, 9/20)
Bloomberg: Republicans Peddle Nonsense To Sell Health-Care Plan
Graham and Cassidy have sold this hastily assembled measure as a bipartisan compromise that, rather than cutting coverage, merely gives the states the funds and flexibility to determine their own health-care policies. None of that holds up. The bill is purely partisan—it's being rushed through for the simple reason that it lacks any Democratic support. Graham, in press conferences, has hailed the plan as a middle-ground compromise between Obamacare and the coverage-slashing Republican proposals that collapsed in July. That's nonsense. (Albert R. Hunt, 9/20)
Boston Globe: Yet Another Cynical GOP Ploy On Health Care
The latest Republican vehicle for repealing and replacing Obamacare is Graham-Cassidy, a bill that would dramatically cut federal health care spending and block-grant remaining monies to the states while not requiring those states to spend the money on expanding care. (Micheal Cohen, 9/20)
Bloomberg: How The Health-Care Debate Would Change If Graham-Cassidy Passes
What a difference a week makes. Last week, many commentators (including me) saw the Graham-Cassidy bill as a bit of Hail Mary legislating, a last desperate stand against Obamacare. This week, it started to look as if it might actually have some chance of passage. The legislative math remains daunting; the parliamentary obstacles high. But the status of Republican health-care efforts has moved from “flatline” to “still breathing, barely.” (Megan McArdle, 9/20)
