This time they mean business.
The Republican majority in the House of Representatives, who are being encouraged by President Donald Trump, are back at it with their effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The first attempt, which occurred a little more than a month ago failed in the House when it appeared the bill was headed for defeat due to a lack of support from many Republicans, but the House was set to vote on a new repeal and replace bill May 4.
Prior to the vote, the Republican leadership in the House was confident the new bill would pass. The new bill looked a lot like the old bill with speculation that millions of people who currently have health insurance would no longer if the new bill were passed, but it is difficult to say because the House leadership moved too fast on the bill so the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) could not even study the bill. The previous Republican bill would have reduced the number of Americans covered and increased premiums, so it is easy to see why that bill failed. Critics of the new bill, without any analysis from the CBO to go on, focused on a provision that would put people with pre-existing conditions at risk of losing their healthcare, something Obamacare does not permit.
In response to this criticism, the Republicans tweaked the bill to offer more compensation to people with pre-existing conditions to help them afford “high risk” insurance, which is drastically more than typical health insurance, but most people say that the amount the Republicans are offering would not come close to helping at all.
Even if the new bill is passed by the House a major hurdle still stands in its way, the Senate. Most political experts believe the House bill as it is would not survive a Senate vote, so we will continue follow the progress of this bill as we move forward.
