by Itunuoluwa Adebo
Republican Senator Cruz (R-Tex) has convened a working group to keep alive the GOP’s pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The group, which presently numbers 13, is at the center of a fragile connection between hard-liners and leadership that may be the Senate’s best chance to pass its own version. According to interviews with two dozen Republican senators and aides, the strategy is to bring together lawmakers with starkly different views, let them talk — and keep them talking until consensus is reached.
But there is a major hitch. Many of the key Republican senators who could stand in the way of a successful health-care vote are not in the group. And some of them are forming their own coalitions, indicating that getting 51 votes when there are only 52 Republicans in the Chamber is a huge challenge. The three biggest issues yet to be reconciled are the scope of coverage for people with a preexisting injury or illness, health-care tax credits and Medicaid. Many differences remain among members of the working group itself.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who hail from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, have repeatedly expressed concerns about being able to provide adequate protections for people who have received coverage through the entitlement program or may be eligible to receive it in the future.
Others, including Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), have signalled that they want an uncompromising assault on Obamacare that goes further in shredding regulations than many Senate Republicans are willing to venture.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), another member of the group, has been working on a provision to rework the tax credits in the House bill to provide more assistance to elderly and lower-income Americans. The House included tax credits in its bill as a substitute for federal insurance subsidies in Obamacare. Another major difference among the Republicans is that the group is made up of 12 white men including Cruz does not include any of the five female Republican senators.
“Those are choices that were made,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who objects to the House bill’s impact on her rural working-class state. “As a woman, I’m going to be participating very loudly,” Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), in particular, could become thorns in negotiations, partially because of their desire to restore funding for Planned Parenthood, which the House proposal would gut.
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