Senate Republicans are scrambling to come up with another plan now that at least four member of their caucus have said that they would vote against moving forward with debate on the Better Care Reconciliation Act.
Support for the bill, which included dramatic Medicaid cuts and stripped many coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act, was lacking after revisions were announced on July 13. At that time, conservative Sen. Ran Paul (R-Ky.) and moderate Susan Collins (R-Maine) voiced their opposition for different ideological reasons. They were joined by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who also declined to support the bill. Senate GOP leadership, with a slim 52-48 majority, could only afford to lose two votes (Vice President Mike Pence would have been the tie-breaking vote).
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No new timeline has been revealed for the next steps.
“The health reform debate is by no means over,” David Barbe, MD, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement. “Congress must begin a collaborative process that produces a bipartisan solution. ... Near-term action is needed to stabilize the individual/nongroup health insurance marketplace. In the long term, stakeholders and policymakers need to address the unsustainable trends in health care costs while achieving meaningful, affordable coverage for all Americans.”
AGA believes that, at a minimum, any replacement package must ensure patient access to and coverage of specialty care, ensure patient access to and coverage of evidence-based preventive screenings without cost-sharing, ensure that insurers cannot discriminate because of a pre-existing condition, ensure that insurers cannot discriminate based on gender, allow parents to keep their children on their plans until age 26, and there should be no annual or lifetime caps.
