The long-awaited plan marks a big step towards achieving one of the Republican party's major goals.
"Right now the challenge is - how do we get to 50?"
Lasik surgery - where you want to get surgery to get rid of glasses - everybody asks the price.
The subsidies also make it so a person can not pay more than a certain percentage of their income on premiums. This Senate plan does, however, keep ACA subsidies to help pay for coverage. "That in turn will make the risk pool much healthier, which will also lower premiums". Under the Senate bill, tax credits would be based primarily on age as well as income and geography.
Heller said it is a "lie" that the Senate Republican health care bill would lower premiums.
But it then allows states to opt out of that requirement.
"We can not support the current bill", said Senator Rand Paul, R-KY.
The bill appears to be a less austere version of the one that passed in the House of Representatives last month which, according to a forecast by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), would leave 23 million fewer people insured than under current law.
"The goal of a lot of the reform discussion has been trying to allow states to be more innovative in their delivery of dollars for the Medicaid system", said state Rep. Murrell Smith, the Sumter Republican who chairs a panel that decides state health-care spending.
Southeast Arkansas Sees Heavy Rain As Cindy Passes Through
CDT Thursday, Cindy was about 165 miles (265 kilometers) northwest of Morgan City and moving to the north at 13 mph (20 kph). A few tornadoes are possible through tonight from the lower MS and Tennessee Valley regions to the central Gulf Coast.
In addition, Bailey predicts roughly a dozen S.C. hospitals will close if the Senate GOP plan becomes law.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said the new bill was "heartless", warning it would eventually cut Medicaid even more steeply than the House legislation, which slashes it by US$800 billion over a decade.
"The president said the House bill was mean", said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Four Republican senators - Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky - said they would not vote on the bill in its current condition.
Republican Senators are planning to vote on the bill before their July 4th recess.
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McConnell released the bill after weeks of closed-door meetings searching for middle ground between conservative senators seeking an aggressive repeal of Obama's statute and centrists warning about going too far.
"Simply put, if there's a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family - this bill will do you harm", Obama wrote Thursday in a lengthy Facebook post. NPR's Alison Kodjak begins our coverage.
"Because there are differences between the Senate and House bills, the House will either have to accept the Senate version or a conference committee will have to be formed in order to resolve the disagreements", explained Wendy Parmet, Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law and director of the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern.
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