Culture|July 25, 2017|
By Lindsey Lanquist
Senate Moves Forward With Discussions to Repeal Obamacare
The push to repeal Obamacare isn't over yet.
Tom Williams/Getty Images
Update, July 25: On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate voted 51–50 in favor of a motion to proceed with the health care debate. In other words, the Senate chose to continue discussing potential plans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) after recent efforts fell flat.
Senator John McCain, who was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, returned to the Senate to cast his vote in favor of the motion to proceed. All 48 Senate Democrats voted against the motion, and two Republican senators—Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Liza Murkowski—did as well. (Worth mentioning: Collins and Murkowski previously expressed that they wouldn't vote to repeal Obamacare without a suitable replacement. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito said the same, but she voted in favor of the motion to proceed.) That left 50 senators in favor of the motion and 50 senators against, so Vice President Mike Pence stepped in to break up the tie and vote in favor of moving forward with the health care debate.
To be clear, the Senate hasn't passed any new bills yet. In fact, there are several senators can now consider—there's the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), which failed to garner enough GOP support earlier this month, and a full Obamacare repeal, neither of which appear to have enough support to pass. Another option could be a "skinny repeal," which would get rid of the individual mandate and eliminate some Obamacare-imposed taxes. The Senate will reportedly debate, amend, and vote on these measures in the coming days, according to The New York Times.
Original report:
GOP leaders have been vocal about their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) as soon as they possibly could. That goal has proven surprisingly difficult. The House GOP's replacement plan, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), has yet to move forward in the Senate. And the Senate GOP's replacement plan, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), failed to garner enough support to warrant a vote after two Republican senators voiced concerns with the bill Monday. So in a last-ditch effort to follow through on their health care agenda, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump pushed to repeal Obamacare without a replacement at all.
Thankfully, three Republican senators—Maine's Susan Collins, West Virginia's Shelley Moore Capito, and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski—stepped in to make sure that didn't happen. They refused to support this last-minute attempt "repeal and delay" Obamacare, noting that it could send insurance markets into turmoil and endanger the lives of millions of Americans. Without those three votes, McConnell couldn't move forward with his proposal to repeal Obamacare and develop a replacement plan later.
Here's a quick recap of what's happened in the GOP's quest to repeal Obamacare so far:
January 11: President Donald Trump says he plans to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a new plan immediately—maybe within the same day, or even the same hour—at a press conference.
March 7: Republicans in the House of Representatives draft the American Health Care Act (AHCA), a potential Obamacare replacement plan.
March 13: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that the AHCA would cause 24 million Americans to lose health insurance over the next decade.
March 24: House Republicans can't get enough support to pass the AHCA, so they pull it from consideration.
May 4: House Republicans make last-minute changes to the AHCA and manage to pass it, and it heads to the Senate.
May 24: The CBO finds that the updated version of the AHCA would still cost 23 million people their health insurance over the next decade.
June 22: Senate Republicans draft their own replacement plan, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA).
June 26: The CBO finds that the BCRA will cost 22 million Americans their health insurance over the next decade.
July 13: Senate Republicans make minor changes to the BCRA, hoping the bill can get the 50 votes it needs to move forward.
July 17: Two Republican senators—Kansas' Jerry Moran and Utah's Mike Lee—announce they won't support the BCRA, leaving the bill without the majority support it needs to pass. So McConnell and Trump push for a repeal and delay strategy.
July 18: The GOP's attempt to repeal and delay is blocked when Senators Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito, and Lisa Murkowski refuse to support it.
GOP leaders—including McConnell and Trump—argue that repealing Obamacare without first passing a health care plan to replace it would give them more time to draft a bill that can actually get enough support to pass. According to McConnell's proposal, the repeal wouldn't have gone into effect for two years. Giving Republican legislators more time to get their sh*t together might seem like a good idea, but it's more complicated than that.
Repealing Obamacare without a replacement could cost 18 million Americans their health insurance.
If Republicans still haven't passed a replacement by the time a repeal goes into effect, at least 18 million Americans could lose health insurance, according to a January CBO report. That number could jump to 32 million within the first decade of Obamacare's repeal without a replacement. (And you thought the CBO scores for the AHCA and BCRA were bad.)
Oh, and health insurance premiums for people buying individual coverage could actually increase by 50 percent within a decade of Obamacare's repeal—which means health insurance would become even less affordable and accessible for many Americans.
And it could cost 8,400 Americans their lives.
When people don't have health insurance, they're less likely to receive the care they need for major health conditions and chronic diseases, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. They're less likely to get necessary prescription medications, and they're less inclined to carry out follow-up care.
This combines to create a devastating pattern: People without health insurance are more likely to go to the hospital for avoidable health issues, more likely to experience overall health declines, and more likely to die. The New York Times estimated that 8,400 Americans could die the first year the Obamacare repeal goes into effect without another health care plan in place.
Kudos to Collins, Moore and Murkowski for breaking with party lines to prevent things from going down this dangerous path.
Trump has previously said he wants to simultaneously repeal and replace Obamacare, and he's also made it clear he doesn't want people "dying in the streets." But his recent move to repeal and delay contradicted both of those statements.
Here's hoping there are always at least a few members of the GOP willing to vote—or in this case, not vote—their conscience to keep Americans covered and protected.
If you want to make sure that Congress doesn't repeal the Affordable Care Act without a suitable replacement already in place, there's still time to make your voice heard. SELF's resources on finding activist opportunities and getting involved in policy decisions are great places to start. If you're passionate about women's access to reproductive health care in particular, you can also consider: donating to the Center for Reproductive Rights, volunteering for NARAL Pro-Choice America, donating to the Reproductive Health Access Project, or volunteering for Planned Parenthood. Other organizations can help families in need access affordable childcare, job training, and much-needed food and household supplies.
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news, health care, donald trump, obamacare, aca, affordable care act, ahca, bcra, better care reconciliation act, american health care act
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