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Category: Health/Medical

House Scraps ACA Vote, House and Senate Pass One Week CR

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Late last night, House Republican leadership decided to forego a vote on the ACA amendment by Rep. Tom MacArthur circulated earlier this week. MacArthur, who is the leader of the moderate Republican Tuesday Group, would shift how individuals with preexisting conditions are insured to the states. The amendment won the support of the conservative House Freedom Caucus by loosening insurance mandates, but didn’t gain many moderates. Additionally, the House Democrats announced that if the House voted on the amendment, Democrats would all vote against the much-needed, short-term CR to keep the government open though midnight Friday.

This morning, the House of Representatives passed the one-week CR to keep the government operating. It is an necessary step to avert a shutdown as negotiators continue to work on an agreement to extend funding through the remainder of the year via an omnibus appropriations measure.

The Senate unanimously passed a stopgap spending bill, about an hour after the measure was overwhelmingly approved by the House.

The bill funds the government for one week, avoiding a government shutdown at midnight. Lawmakers plan to pass a broader spending package next week to fund the government through September.

Healthcare Bill Pulled

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After a drama-filled day of discussions and conversations between the House and the White House and among the House Republicans themselves, which did not ultimately create enough support for its passage, the healthcare legislation was pulled from the House floor before a vote.  The path forward on the push to repeal and replace Obamacare remains uncertain.

No Healthcare Vote on Thursday

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After another day of intense back-and-forth among House Republicans, there still are not enough votes to secure passage of the current version of the healthcare repeal legislation. As a result, the House leadership has postponed the floor vote scheduled for tonight.  Some reports are indicating that the vote could take place tomorrow morning, after further negotiations.

Drama Continues in Congress

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With the full House currently scheduled to take up the Obamacare repeal-and-replace healthcare bill later today, as of this writing, it still remains uncertain as to whether the White House and the House Republican leadership have been able to convince enough holdouts to get the legislation across the finish line. Many sources report that negotiations between many of the conservative opponents and the White House and the leadership continued throughout yesterday and last evening. At the same time, there are also reports that many of the concessions which may have been offered to the conservatives may have, in turn, alienated some of the moderates who were uneasy about the underlying legislation.

The situation on this front remains fluid and the Office of Federal Relations continues to monitor the situation.

On the other side of the Capitol today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its questioning of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. The confirmation hearing is expected to wrap up this week, with the committee voting on his nomination in early April.

Also taking place today is the Senate Agriculture Committee’s confirmation hearing for Agriculture Secretary nominee Sonny Perdue, the former governor of Georgia.

House Republican Leadership Proposes Changes to Healthcare Legislation

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Last evening, the Republican leadership in the House proposed a number of changes to the committee-passed healthcare legislation. The changes have been offered as proposed amendments (see here) and will still need to be formally adopted to become part of the official legislative package.

The proposed changes were offered to garner enough support from among the House Republicans still unsupportive of the bill to ensure its passage. President Trump met with the entire House Republicans earlier today to urge that they support the bill.

Among the proposed changes are:

• Allowing states to place work requirements on Medicaid recipients
• Allowing states to turn Medicaid into a block grant
• Repealing a number of taxes created by Obamacare a year earlier than currently planned
• Changing Medicaid reimbursement rates for states
• Delaying the “Cadillac tax” on insurance benefits from 2025 to 2026
• Instructing the Senate to offer bigger tax credits for those who are 50 to 64 to offset premium increases

It remains to be seen whether these changes will win over enough of the members who are still either undecided or opposed to the measure to gain passage.