The Republicans are fighting to develop a solution to the health problem that has created their package. It is estimated that it is already estimated 10.9 million more people would be without health insurance under the House version the bill. Gop senators have Proposed steeper reductionsWhat some say go too far.
“The Senate shortlements in Medicaid are far deeper than the house, and I think that’s problematic,” said GOP Senator Susan Collins from Maine.
The senators met behind closed doors and with officials from the Trump management to advance the large bill The president’s deadline on July fourth. Much of the package with its tax reliefs and strengthened border security expensesis essentially moved in. However, the size and scope of the health shortlements are among the most difficult remaining problems.
It is reminiscent of the summer during Trump’s first term in 2017 when the Republicans had difficulty keeping their campaign promise that “to be lifting and replacing” Law on affordable care or ObamacareJust around the GOP splinters about the prospect that Americans lose health insurance. This legislation collapsed with the scenes at that time. John McCain threw a thumbs down.
Majority leader of the Senate John Thune It is determined to avoid this result, to adhere to the schedule and to advance the vote expected by the end of the week.
“This is a good bill and it will be great for our country,” said Thune on Wednesday and sat down for the potential to trigger economic growth and put money into people’s pockets.
It was always expected that the changes to the federal health programs, especially Medicaid, will become a heart of the GOP package, a way to compensate for the costs of providing tax benefits for millions of Americans. Without the congress measures, taxes would increase next year if the current tax law expires.
The calculated bill achieved a total of around $ 1.5 trillion of savings, a large part of it, which resulted from changes in health care. The Medicaid program has been dramatically expanded in the 15 years since the law of Obamacare and is now used around 80 million Americans. The Republicans say that this is far too high, and they want to shy away the program to a smaller size that mainly covers poorer women and children.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries The Republicans try to “try to eliminate the health care of ten million Americans”. Democrats are uniform against what they call “large, ugly bill”.
A large part of the costs for health care costs would come from new 80-hour work requirements for those who receive medicaid services, even if most recipients already work.
Another provision, the so-called provider tax, which almost all states serve to a certain extent for hospitals and others that serve medicaid patients, is particularly concerned about potential cuts for rural hospitals.
Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo. “It depends when we land the plane in rural hospitals,” he said.
States set up taxes to finance Medicaid, mainly by increasing the reimbursements they receive from the federal government. Critics decipher the system as a kind of “laundry”, but almost every state except Alaska uses it to ensure health insurance.
The Bill Would freeze the provider tax at the current level, while the Senate’s proposal goes deeper by reducing the tax that some states can impose.
“I know that the states are dependent on it,” said Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kan. But he added: “Obviously, the provider tax has to disappear.”
However, a number of GOP senators as well as hospitals and other medical providers in their states make strong concerns that the tax changes to the providers would decimate rural hospitals.
In a plea for the legislator, the American Hospital Association said that the cuts not only affect those who receive health insurance through Medicaid, but would continue to burden the emergency rooms “if they become the family doctor of millions of new people”.
“And worse, some hospitals, especially those in rural communities, could be forced to close overall,” said Rick Pollack, President and CEO of the Hospital Group.
The Catholic Health Association of the United States found in his own letter that Medicaid offers health insurance protection for each of five people and almost half of all children.
“The proposed changes to Medicaid have devastating consequences, especially for those in small towns and rural communities, in which Medicaid is often the main source of health insurance,” said sister Mary Haddad, President and CEO of the group.
The senators try to develop a solution to the problem and consider creating a rural hospital fund in order to compensate for the lost Medicaid money.
GOP senators spread a proposal to water 15 billion US dollars for the establishment of a new rural hospital fund. But several senators said that it was too high, while others said it was inadequate. Collins has suggested that the fund be set at 100 billion US dollars.
“It won’t be that big, but there will be a fund,” said Thune.
Hawley, who belonged among the most pronounced cuts in healthcare, said that he is interested in the Rural Hospital Fund, but has to learn more about how it would work.
He also expressed concerns about a new $ 35 payment of $ 35, which could be charged for those with Medicaid, which could be charged both in the representation of the house and in the versions of the Senate of the Act.
“Getting the fund is good. It is important, one step forward,” said Hawley. But he asked: “How does the fund actually distribute the money? Who brings it to hospitals? … Or will it just be something that exists on paper?”
A new analysis of the White House for Economic Advisor Economic Council estimates that the package over 10 years would lead to a reduction in deficit reduction of up to 2.3 trillion dollars, a significantly different assessment of other analyzes. In contrast, the non -partisans Dynamic analysis of the Budget Office Congress A increase in deficits in the next decade estimates that the domestic events estimate $ 2.8 trillion in the next decade.
