Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Republicans Set to Give Obamacare Repeal One Last Try


First Read is your briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter

WASHINGTON — If we've learned anything from the health care debate over the last several months, it's that the GOP's Obamacare repeal efforts never die — like (take your pick) a Bruce Willis action hero or a horror villain. And ahead of the Senate’s September 30 reconciliation deadline, Republicans appear to be giving Obamacare repeal one last try with Graham-Cassidy.

The problem with this last (?) repeal push: It’s unclear if it will win over the same GOP senators who thwarted the previous Obamacare repeal effort — Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and John McCain, R-Ariz. Additionally, it’s picked up what seems to be this hard “no” — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. — which means that Republicans have to win over TWO of these FOUR senators to pass the legislation via reconciliation. That won’t be easy.
 
NBC’s Benjy Sarlin breaks down what’s in Graham-Cassidy: “It would do away with Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, subsidies for private insurance, eliminate the requirement that Americans have insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and payments to insurers to reduce out-of-pocket costs. In their place, it would offer states a new block grant they could use to spend on health care mostly as they saw fit. But the block grant would include less total federal spending, meaning states would struggle to cover the same number of people.” 

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Source: NBC News

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