It is now the Senate’s turn to offer its version of a heath-care bill that Republicans want to replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The House Republicans already had their shot at offering up legislation and quickly passed it before the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) could score the bill and it looks like the Senate is poised to do the same thing.
After analyzing the House bill, the CBO estimated it would cause 23 million Americans to lose health insurance over the next decade. Additionally older Americans would see extreme increases in health insurance premiums and there were massive cuts to Medicaid for the poor in the bill.
The Senate released some of the details of the bill it intends to try and pass next week, which will not give the CBO enough time to estimate the impact, but others have guessed at what the Senate bill might look like and how it would affect the American people.
The Washington Post took a deep look at the Senate bill, and although it may not be as harsh as the House bill, considering the Senate needs moderate Republicans on board, it is also a deceiving bill where huge impacts would only be felt five-to-7 years down the road, obviously for election reasons.
Basically the only positive expected to come out of this Senate bill is that the Senate would like to keep the Obamacare mandate that insurance can’t be denied for people with pre-existing conditions, something the House bill got ride off.
The Impact
- The Senate bill, just like the House bill, would eliminate the individual mandate that everyone has to purchase health insurance, a mandate that was part of Obamacare with the idea that the more people who purchase healthcare the lower the premiums would be.
- Medicaid cuts are also apart of the Senate bill. The government-funded health insurance program for the poor will be funded less, but the Senate bill does this gradually over several years so the one-time shock of less funding might not be noticed as much.
- To help fund Obamacare there was a tax increase for wealthy Americans, obviously neither the Senate nor the House bill would keep this measure and those taxes would be eliminated.
- The Senate bill eliminates all funding for Planned Parenthood for at least one year.
- The decreased subsidies that the Senate would offer would be tied to income rather than age, which the House Bill identified.
The Senate needs 50 votes to pass this bill considering Vice President Mike Pence would break the tie in the Republicans favor. This means that if more than two Republicans in the Senate cross party lines and vote with the Democrats the bill is doomed. Moderate Republicans have a dilemma on their hands. They can support a very flawed bill that would cause more people to lose coverage, cut funds from the poor and provide a tax break for the wealthy, or take a courageous stand against this bill.
After the House passed its bill President Donald Trump held a celebration in the Rose Garden, but since then he has called the bill “mean,” according to a story in the Los Angeles Times, maybe after he read the bill he had second thoughts? Now he has asked the Senate to offer a bill “with heart.” After these comments it is really difficult to understand where the president stands on the two bills. Will he sign a mean bill that has no heart?
