It's 'rotting like a dead fish': Senate Republicans are trying to revive a healthcare bill 'on life support'

pulse

June 30, 2017 3:21 PM

Republican senators have thrown out a few new ideas for the Better Care Reconciliation Act.

null

Senate Republicans are making are taking a second crack at their healthcare bill, but it's unclear if proposed compromises will be enough to get the bill across the finish line.

Members of the conference have been meeting constantly since Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed a vote on the bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, until after the week-long July 4 recess.

Reports have suggested a slew of ideas bandied about to bridge the divide between centrist members of the party and more conservative members, but an agreement has yet to be reached.

Republican leaders sent the Congressional Budget Office the outline of a new bill to get preliminary feedback on the ideas when they get back from recess. That would likely speed up the CBO's process when Senate leaders send a full bill.

While sending something to the CBO is a minor victory for a divided party, the biggest policy disagreements still need to be hammered out. Moderates are demanding more funding for various healthcare initiatives, while conservatives want to gut funding even more and repeal more of Obamacare's regulations.

Here's a rundown of the ideas being discussed:

More funding to fight the opioid crisis:
Allow insurers to sell plans that do not follow Obamacare's regulations:
proposed an amendment
Keep some of Obamacare's taxes:
Expand the use of health savings accounts:

Whether or not those changes would be enough to get 50 senators on board is unclear. Cruz's proposal would face resistance from moderate members who saw the public backlash after the House included a proposal that would've allowed states to gut preexisting conditions protections.

Senate leaders also want to expand funding for various proposals to cut down the number of people the CBO projects would be without insurance under the BCRA. Monday's CBO score showed 22 million more Americans would go without insurance by 2026 than under the current baseline. Of those, 15 million would come off the Medicaid rolls, according to the report.

On the other hand, leaving some of the taxes in place or upping the spending on Medicaid and the state stability fund included in the bill might be non-starters for conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Greg Valliere, chief strategist at Horizon Investments, said the longer the disagreement continues on the bill, the more likely it is to fail.

Getting the two sides to an agreement soon is paramount to finish the push before the month-long August recess.

Once Congress returns from the summer break, it will have just one month to deal with raising the nation's debt ceiling, moving a funding bill to keep the government from shutting down, and a slew of other necessary legislation.

pulse