The Republican Party tried to tackle health care and failed miserably, withdrawing their replacement American Health Care Act before a vote could even take place due to lack of support. This has to get done. The GOP spent nearly a decades promising to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“We tried” isn’t going to cut it with the base. Guy and Cortney wrote how Vice President Mike Pence is quarterbacking a new effort to win over the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who with the moderate Tuesday Group, helped torpedo the first attempt to pass the AHCA. Cortney wrote that one of the conservative groups that opposed the AHCA, Club for Growth, was encouraged by some of the tweaks to the new bill. One of the big provisions was allowing states to permit their insurers to opt-out of covering 10 benefits in their plans, like maternity care and hospitalization. A man who is 60 years or older, or any male for that matter, shouldn’t be forced to pay for medical services they can’t use at all.
Last night, Pence and the House GOP met in a meeting for about two hours, according to the Washington Examiner. No deal was struck. No meaningful headway that would suggest a passable bill was made either. Yes, they said that the talks were productive, but this aura of hope was also made prior to the collapse of the first Republican push on health care. Also, Pence did a charm offense on the HFC at the first bite of this apple. It didn't work. Second, the publication noted that once the April recess ends, Congress has very little time, around a week, to get a funding resolution passed to keep government open (via WeX):
After holing up in the basement of the Capitol with Vice President Mike Pence for two hours Tuesday night, House Republicans emerged with no breakthrough on the logjam of issues preventing them from reaching consensus on a plan to repeal Obamacare.[…]
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, questioned after the meeting whether lawmakers should stick around during the two-week recess to finish up a deal.
"There's a concern on my part where if we're making real progress that going home sends the wrong message," he said. "It is certainly important that if we're close to a deal that we should work it out over the next few days to make sure we get here, even if it means we have to cancel a few plans to get that done."
But so far there aren't any real discussions on pushing back recess, he added.
Once lawmakers return from the Easter recess they must quickly put together a deal to fund the government before funding expires on April 28.
Not to sound all doom and gloom, but we seem to be having the same issues that tripped us up the first time.
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