Key GOP senator knocks three-phase Republican health-care plan
A key Republican senator is casting doubt on the three-phase process that Republican leaders have outlined to replace Obamacare. “That’s just not going to happen,” Sen. Tom Cotton told conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham on Monday.
Cotton, an outspoken conservative critic of the House Republican plan, repeated his call for the House to slow down. “We can take a pause,” Cotton said, “I care much more about getting it right than getting it fast.”
Phase one is the healthcare legislation that House Republican leaders unveiled earlier last week which could be passed through the Senate using a procedure called reconciliation which avoids the possibility of a Democratic filibuster. The bill would eliminate the individual mandate, repeal taxes on wealthy Americans, replace the Obamacare subsidies with refundable tax credits, and make changes to Medicaid that would take effect in 2020.
Because the bill is being passed with a procedure used for budget reconciliation -- in order to give GOP lawmakers the ability to sidestep a Democratic filibuster in the Senate -- not everything Republicans want will be in the bill. The measure is limited to items that affect the bottom line.
Phase two consists of the regulatory changes that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has the discretion to make to help the insurance market adjust. He would, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan, use his powers to deregulate the marketplace, lower costs and stabilize the market. Ryan counts 1,400 instances in the health care law that give the secretary discretion to “bring more market freedom and market stabilization.”
Phase three includes legislation that would let insurance companies sell policies across state lines, which President Trump has promised. But anything in this phase would be subject to the Senate filibuster, requiring senators to come up with eight Democratic votes, an outcome that seems unlikely at this point.
Cotton knocked the underlying logic of the three-phase process. “Phase three is some imaginary bill that might pass with Democratic support. Well, if we had Democratic support we wouldn’t need phase two and phase three,” Cotton explained. “That’s why we get this bill right -- because we have no guarantees what might happen in the mythical phase two, phase three,” he argued.
Ingraham, an influential conservative talk radio show host who was in the running for a post in the Trump communications shop, pressed Cotton on whether he would stand up to President Trump if he came after him.
“This question of the President so early on in his administration threatening all of these groups which have been working for years, and doing frankly incredible work, ground breaking analysis of the healthcare system,” Ingraham said expressing umbrage at reports that the President was threatening to help primary conservatives opponents of the Obamacare overhaul. “And to be implicitly or explicitly threatened, you don’t have a comment on that?” she pressed Cotton after he initially deflected.
“I hope the president and I can agree on this,” Cotton answered somewhat reluctantly, “as I’ve always said I’ll support the president when I think he’s right, I’ll try to change his mind if I when I think he’s wrong. If I can’t change his mind I’ll have to oppose him.”
Elsewhere on Monday, other members of Congress raised concerns about the Republican alternative to Obamacare in various television interviews. “I’m putting myself down as undecided right now,” Rep. Charlie Dent, (R-PA), said in an interview with CNN voicing concerns about a potential rollback of Medicaid expansion.
“I’m not prepared to vote for it...right now,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told Fox News, “I think we can do better.”
Both Dent and Issa said that were awaiting for the CBO’s analysis of the healthcare legislation, which may come Monday.
