U.S. Senate leaders unveil revised health bill

Senate Republican leaders on Thursday unveiled a revised proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Source: “Senate Republicans Unveil New Health Bill, but Divisions Remain,” New York Times, July 13, 2017).

But Republican leaders will have to battle for votes ahead of a final showdown they hope will come next week. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, a conservative, said they were not swayed — even on a procedural motion to take up the bill for debate.

Several others, from both sides of the party’s ideological spectrum, expressed misgivings. Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah and a strong conservative, said, “The new Senate health care bill is substantially different from the version released last month, and it is unclear to me whether it has improved.”

But more moderate members were upset by cuts to Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia and a moderate voice, expressed “serious concerns about the Medicaid provisions” in the latest draft, and Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, expressed similar concern.

With 52 Republicans in the Senate, and two firm “no” votes already, a single new defection would doom the bill and jeopardize the Republicans’ seven-year quest to dismantle the health law.