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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will release the next version of Trumpcare, which he plans on bringing to the floor next week, late Thursday morning. The contents of that bill have leaked, and from what McConnell has decided to retain from the previous version (massive Medicaid cuts) and what he's adding (a variation on Ted Cruz's amendment to allow junk policies) it's clear that he's counting on the so-called moderates in his conference to fold.
According to numerous senators who spoke with NBC reporters, "the more than $700 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid will still be part of the measure."
Some of moderates’ concerns have been addressed, however, including a $45 billion fund to help people with opioid addiction and the extension of a 3.8 percent tax on the wealthy first implemented under the Affordable Care Act, giving Republicans an estimated $170 billion over ten years to fund their health care bill. Eliminating those taxes has been a prime goal of many conservative members of the House and Senate, but Democrats have hammered the bill for cutting benefits for the poor while bestowing more money on the rich.
Retaining the taxes on the wealthy might get a few wayward senators, but none should be satisfied with the pittance that McConnell is putting toward opioid addiction or the additional $70 billion he's added to in a "stabilization" fund to help states offset the costs of covering expensive patients. Neither is adequately funded when it comes to trying to make up for the Medicaid cuts. But it's the likely inclusion of the Cruz amendment (or something based on it according to Cruz's ally from Utah, Sen. Mike Lee) that's just McConnell rubbing salt in the moderates' wounds. Axios has some of the details. According to their reporting, it's in the bill "in brackets, the sources say, meaning it's incomplete and subject to edits or removal." The Congressional Budget Office is analyzing the bill both with the provision and without it.
Time to jam the phone lines—Republicans still want to pass Trumpcare! Even if you called before, call your senator at (202) 224-3121. Tell them Trumpcare is SICK, MEAN and CRUEL. Then, tell us how it went.
The insurers and every major patient advocacy group are lobbying against the Cruz amendment, which would allow insurers selling plans compliant with Affordable Care Act regulations to also sell non-compliant plans. The insurers and disease advocacy groups argue that this would turn the compliant exchange plans into high risk pools where all the sick, expensive patients end up, "with unaffordable premiums for those with pre-existing conditions," in AHIP's words.
On its face, the changes from McConnell would appear to appease his extremely cranky, "irritable" group of Republican senators. McConnell's path to 50 votes doesn't seem to be made easier, unless he is able to flip the supposed moderates who've been raising so much hell. Clearly, he thinks he can.