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Republicans in the House of Representatives jammed through their health care bill, the American Health Care Act or AHCA, by a narrow margin. The AHCA is a monstrosity, a moral disgrace, a document that would allow insurance companies to treat rape, pregnancy complications and post-partum depression like pre-existing conditions. It takes away money from special education and Planned Parenthood. If the AHCA was enacted today, millions of Americans would lose health insurance and millions of Americans would die horrible deaths from completely treatable diseases. So what are the odds that the AHCA will actually make it through the Senate?
From doctors to insurance companies to hospitals and consumer groups, no one likes the Republican health-care bill that narrowly passed the House on Thursday. Even House Republicans who voted for the legislation concede that it’s terrible. “Is this bill good? No, I don’t like it,” Representative Mario Diaz-Balart told the Washington Post, shortly after voting for it. The Florida Republican said that while tens of thousands of his constituents are poised to lose their health insurance, senators assured him they’d take care of it.
He wasn’t the only House Republican who suggested he only voted on the bill because he knew the Senate would make drastic changes. According to Politico, that’s actually an argument the White House used when pushing to get the House bill across the finish line. “Everyone knows this won’t be the final product,” said one senior administration official. “So if you don’t like something, it’s fine.”
“We have to have a win on this,” the official added. “We don’t have a choice.”
So while House Republicans joined President Trump at the White House to celebrate scoring a political win by voting to potentially kill or bankrupt millions of Americans, GOP senators were in a much more pensive mood on Thursday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was muted in his statement following the vote, which he called “an important step.” He added, “We are now closer to giving our constituents freedom from the increased costs, diminishing choices, and broken promises of Obamacare.”
When asked about the bill hours before the vote, Republican Senator Lindsey Gram said he had no idea what was in it, though it seemed like it was “moving in a better direction” toward more state control over the health care system. “But any bill that has been posted less than 24 hours — going to be debated three or four hours, not scored — needs to be viewed with suspicion,” he told the New York Times. (On Twitter he toned down his language, saying the bill “should be viewed with caution.”)
[From NY Mag]
That link has additional information about the likelihood anything will come of this in the Senate. I think Senate Republicans will try to work on it and maybe even come up with a bill that is less controversial, but I’m not sure that a Senate vote will ever happen. And Senate Republicans are already bitching about Democrats’ seeming unwillingness to come to the table and negotiate, to which I say… I hope Democrats continue to refuse to participate in this farce. Hold the line. Obamacare is imperfect but it can be salvaged and made into a better law. The AHCA is the Republicans’ death warrant. Let them own it. They were so f–king desperate for a “win” that they gleefully voted for this asinine bill. Call your senators and tell them what you expect of them.
Also: FiveThirtyEight is already doing analysis of how the House vote on the AHCA will affect midterm elections next year.
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Source: celebitchy.com
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