WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans would cut Medicaid, end penalties for people not buying insurance and erase a raft of tax increases as part of their long-awaited plan to scuttle President Barack Obama's health care law, congressional aides and lobbyists say.
Those subsidies are expected to be linked to recipients' income, a "major improvement" from a healthcare overhaul bill passed in the House of Representatives that tied them exclusively to age, Republican senator Susan Collins said on Wednesday. The Senate bill also cuts off Obamacare's Medicaid expansion more gradually than the House legislation, which passed on May 4, and it removes language restricting federally subsidized health plans from covering abortions, the newspaper said.
Given the fact that there may be just a week between the bill being posted and a final vote, he added, "I find it hard to believe we'll have enough time". Anxious to keep their promise to repeal and replace the ACA, a group of Republican senators is secretly working on their own version of the AHCA proposed by the House of Representatives.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, defending the closed-door sessions, has said all Senate Republicans have had a chance to participate in meetings on the bill, and that Democrats are not interested in discussing Obamacare repeal.
A majority of voters in deeply red congressional districts oppose the health care overhaul approved by the House last month, a finding that could complicate efforts to get the legislation to President Donald J. Trump's desk, according to a University of Maryland poll released Wednesday. No Democrats are expected to support the bill. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen.
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"What I've told leadership very clearly is I'm going to need time, and my constituents are going to need time, to evaluate exactly how this is going to affect them", Johnson said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'll give senators a draft of the bill Thursday. That move could prompt states to reduce the size of their Medicaid programs.
Earlier Wednesday, conservative Sen. That might satisfy Republican senators from states that expanded their programs, but conservatives have wanted to halt the extra expenditures quickly. Starting in 2020, that threshold would be lowered to 350 percent under the Senate bill - but anyone below that line could get the subsidies if they're not eligible for Medicaid.
According to the poll, almost 60 percent of adults said they thought it would make insurance more expensive for low-income Americans and people with pre-existing conditions.
Like the House measure, the Senate bill would eliminate two central requirements of the current health-care law: that individuals provide proof of insurance when filing their annual tax returns and that companies with 50 or more employees provide health coverage for their workers.
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