Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Republicans To Begin Tackling Pre-Existing Conditions, Medicaid With Hearings This Week
The Hill: McConnell Wants To Finish Work On ObamaCare Quickly
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday said he wants Congress to wrap up work on replacing ObamaCare soon so lawmakers can move on to President Trump’s other big priority: tax reform. McConnell told The Hill in an interview that he doesn’t want the debate over replacing the landmark healthcare reform law to drag on for months, expressing the same sense of urgency as Trump, who has called for Congress to move “very quickly.” (Bolton, 1/27)
The Hill: House To Begin Looking At ObamaCare Replacement Bills
The ObamaCare battle will heat up in the coming week with a string of hearings and the end of the enrollment period. The Trump administration set off anger among ObamaCare supporters on Thursday by cancelling the remaining outreach ads encouraging people to enroll. The final deadline is on Tuesday, after which a clearer picture of how enrollment did, and whether the lack of ads made a difference, should emerge. (Hellmann, 1/30)
Politico Pro: Divided GOP Starts Assembling Slivers Of An Obamacare Replacement
Congressional Republicans still deeply divided on how to replace Obamacare will try to buy themselves some time this week by debating a set of narrow bills addressing specific parts of the health system and holding public sessions to rail against what they view as the law’s failings. Republicans will start with one of the most controversial issues in the debate over Obamacare: how to cover people with pre-existing conditions. They'll also address tightening Medicaid eligibility rules — including to restrict lottery winners from participating in the entitlement — and changing some Obamacare rules before the law is repealed. At best, these elements would constitute important slivers of a complete repeal and replace plan. (Haberkorn, 1/30)
Politico Pro: Ryan Sets End-Of-Year Deadline For Obamacare Replacement
House Speaker Paul Ryan wants to give Republicans until the end of the year to pass an Obamacare replacement package — a move that could create serious timing issues as the GOP figures out what to include in the legislation. Ryan, during a POLITICO Playbook interview Friday afternoon, said there would likely be a built-in delay before the replacement policies take effect, meaning the GOP's concept of an overhauled health system may not begin to materialize until well into 2018. (Cancryn, 1/27)
Morning Consult: After Retreat, GOP Decided Little On Health Plan
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees health care issues, said they have “a good idea” of where they’re going, but said there were a number of moving pieces. For example, one bill under consideration will address the “death spiral” in the individual market, while Walden is working on his own bill for next week that would affirm Republicans’ commitment to covering people with pre-existing conditions. Walden did not provide details, but said it would be a broad commitment, in contrast to a proposal this week from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that would give people with pre-existing conditions a two-year window for enrollment. (McIntire, 1/26)
McClatchy: Conservatives Warn GOP Is Losing Momentum On Obamacare Repeal
Congress was poised to start major work this week on dismantling the Affordable Care Act, but conservatives are already fuming over lost momentum that they fear could doom the repeal effort. Lawmakers missed a non-binding deadline to deliver details of a repeal plan Friday and left a GOP retreat without reaching consensus on a replacement package that an increasing number of Republicans want to see agreed before the 2010 law is taken apart. (Clark, 1/30)
In other news on GOP's repeal efforts —
Forbes: As GOP Backs Off ACA Repeal, Obama's Medicare Reforms Remain
Four Republican Senators last week introduced what they call a “comprehensive replacement plan for Obamacare” that gained attention because it gives states three options, including allowing states to keep the ACA intact. States could keep Obamacare and its individual mandates, tax credits and Medicaid expansions or switch to a different kind of insurance expansion they say is “market-based” or go with no coverage expansion “without any federal assistance.” But the Republican Senators’ “Patient Freedom Act of 2017” doesn’t do away with popular Medicare reforms and senior benefits under Obama’s ACA to Medicare health insurance program for elderly Americans. (Japsen, 1/29)
CQ Roll Call: Trump States Hit Hardest If Obamacare Cost-Sharing Help Ends
Republicans in Congress are weighing whether to fund a controversial health program aimed at reducing out-of-pocket costs. It's a part of the 2010 health overhaul they've long opposed -- but the constituents with the most to lose overwhelmingly live in the parts of the country that President Donald Trump won in last year's election. An analysis of the Americans at risk is part of the pitch insurers are making on the Hill as they pressure newly empowered Republicans to keep so-called cost-sharing reductions, which help insurers reduce copays and deductibles for about 6.3 million low-income Americans in the individual insurance market. (Mershon and Williams, 1/27)
CQ Roll Call: Obamacare Suffers 1,000 Cuts At The Hands Of Appropriators
Republicans’ drive to deliver a death blow to President Barack Obama’s health care law overshadows a quieter assault that’s gone on for years, using annual government funding bills. It’s not as glamorous or high decibel as the news conferences and floor debates surrounding the repeal of the law, but it certainly has proven controversial. What’s more, the law’s supporters see this GOP tactic as partly responsible for many of the failures in the law that Republicans now say they must fix. (Mejdrich, 1/30)
Tampa Bay Times: Castor Meeting Calm Despite Call For Protest
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, who organized the event, is one of the health care law's strongest proponents. In 2009, she organized a town hall meeting that was interrupted by shouting and shoving when opponents bused hundreds of people in to protest Obamacare. But at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library on Friday, most of the crowd of 75 or so who showed up were there for one-on-one meetings with Castor or her staff members to discuss problems with federal agencies. (March, 1/27)
