Reuters, Washington :
The Republican plan backed by President Donald Trump to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system cleared its first hurdles in Congress on Thursday, but its chances for passage looked uncertain and top Republicans scrambled to bring disgruntled conservatives aboard.
In the face of opposition by Democrats, healthcare providers and many conservatives, two House of Representatives committees approved the legislation that would undo much of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, moving it closer to a vote before the full House. The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 31-23 along party lines, with Democrats unified against it, to back the plan after marathon proceedings lasting 27 straight hours. Hours earlier, the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee similarly voted 23-16 before dawn to approve it after working 17 straight hours. House Speaker Paul Ryan sought to bolster support among conservatives in his own party, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said fellow Republicans must get in a “governing mode” while Trump denied the bill was in trouble.
“Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!” the Republican president said on Twitter. The bill would replace Obamacare’s income-based subsidies with a system of fixed tax credits to help people buy private insurance on the open market, while ditching the Obamacare expansion of the Medicaid insurance program for the poor. It would also end penalties for not having insurance, though insurers would be given permission to impose a 30 percent surcharge on customers who let their coverage lapse for more than two months and then seek to renew.
Hospital stocks, which has fallen after the plan was unveiled on Monday, ended broadly higher on Thursday, with Tenet Healthcare up 3.4 percent. Shares of health insurers were mixed, with most large insurers modestly higher and Medicaid-focused insurers ending negative, including Molina Healthcare’s 3.3 percent drop.
While Republicans have been itching for seven years to dismantle Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, the party has failed to coalesce behind the plan put forth by House Republican leaders. Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time in a decade, but passage of the legislation was not a foregone conclusion. Conservative lawmakers and lobbying groups have lambasted it as too similar to Obamacare. They have sharply criticized its proposed tax credits as an unacceptable new government entitlement program and have called for a quicker end to the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. A copy of Obamacare repeal and replace recommendations (L) produced by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives sit next to a copy of the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price addresses the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 7, 2017. The measure is the first major legislative test for Trump and his fellow Republicans amid questions about whether they can govern effectively after years spent as an opposition party under Obama. Ryan, with his shirt sleeves rolled up and using a video screen with facts and figures, held what he called a “townhall-style” presentation for reporters on the proposal. But his intended audience appeared to be fellow Republicans, and he said his party must “actually make good on our word.”
The Republican plan backed by President Donald Trump to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system cleared its first hurdles in Congress on Thursday, but its chances for passage looked uncertain and top Republicans scrambled to bring disgruntled conservatives aboard.
In the face of opposition by Democrats, healthcare providers and many conservatives, two House of Representatives committees approved the legislation that would undo much of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, moving it closer to a vote before the full House. The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 31-23 along party lines, with Democrats unified against it, to back the plan after marathon proceedings lasting 27 straight hours. Hours earlier, the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee similarly voted 23-16 before dawn to approve it after working 17 straight hours. House Speaker Paul Ryan sought to bolster support among conservatives in his own party, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said fellow Republicans must get in a “governing mode” while Trump denied the bill was in trouble.
“Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!” the Republican president said on Twitter. The bill would replace Obamacare’s income-based subsidies with a system of fixed tax credits to help people buy private insurance on the open market, while ditching the Obamacare expansion of the Medicaid insurance program for the poor. It would also end penalties for not having insurance, though insurers would be given permission to impose a 30 percent surcharge on customers who let their coverage lapse for more than two months and then seek to renew.
Hospital stocks, which has fallen after the plan was unveiled on Monday, ended broadly higher on Thursday, with Tenet Healthcare up 3.4 percent. Shares of health insurers were mixed, with most large insurers modestly higher and Medicaid-focused insurers ending negative, including Molina Healthcare’s 3.3 percent drop.
While Republicans have been itching for seven years to dismantle Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, the party has failed to coalesce behind the plan put forth by House Republican leaders. Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time in a decade, but passage of the legislation was not a foregone conclusion. Conservative lawmakers and lobbying groups have lambasted it as too similar to Obamacare. They have sharply criticized its proposed tax credits as an unacceptable new government entitlement program and have called for a quicker end to the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. A copy of Obamacare repeal and replace recommendations (L) produced by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives sit next to a copy of the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price addresses the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 7, 2017. The measure is the first major legislative test for Trump and his fellow Republicans amid questions about whether they can govern effectively after years spent as an opposition party under Obama. Ryan, with his shirt sleeves rolled up and using a video screen with facts and figures, held what he called a “townhall-style” presentation for reporters on the proposal. But his intended audience appeared to be fellow Republicans, and he said his party must “actually make good on our word.”
