Republicans are doing everything they can to keep their healthcare bill a secret

pulse

June 16, 2017 9:22 PM

Senate Republicans still haven't released their long-awaited healthcare bill and it looks like they want to keep it that way.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Senate Republican leaders are keeping their healthcare bill quiet — very, very quiet.

Despite reports Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is attempting to bring the bill for a vote before the week-long July 4 recess, there remains no public text of any proposed legislation, and therefore no Congressional Budget Office score. There have also been no public hearings on changes made to the House version of the bill.

While a core group of GOP senators is working on the bill, it appears that not all Senate Republicans even know what could be in it.

McConnell is likely able to keep the bill under wraps until days before a final vote. By all indications that is the path the Republicans will take to try to ensure its passage.

The secretive process has drawn the ire of Democratic lawmakers and activists, who have argued that Republicans attacked Democrats for "backroom deals" on the Affordable Care Act, the law known as Obamacare, despite that bill getting dozens of hearings and hundreds of amendments from both sides.

Even some Republicans aren't happy.

The logic behind it all

Public backlash during the House deliberation on its healthcare legislation, the American Health Care Act, was intense. Lawmakers received a deluge of calls from constituents against the bill. Think tanks and health policy experts — both conservative and liberal — picked the bill apart. Analyses showed the bill would result in higher prices for older and sicker Americans, coverage losses, and a slew of other negative side effects.

The furor increased after the CBO score estimated that 23 million more people would go without insurance under the American Health Care Act by 2026 than under the current system.

Republican leaders in the Senate have sought to avoid similar public fury, while writing its own version of the bill. McConnell can only lose three votes to pass the legislation, so any wavering on the bill by GOP members could doom it.

The House vote was incredibly close, and 20 Republicans ended up voting against the bill.

Is it the framework of the House-passed bill and then we're filling in our own details? I don't know," Murkowski told Vox's Dylan Scott. "We just don't know. My constituents expect me to know, and if we had utilized the process that goes through a committee, I would be able to answer not only your questions but my constituents' questions."

pulse