Thursday, the House of Representatives passed legislation for a repeal and replace of Obamacare, a task that was originally met with immediate failure just several weeks ago. However through some floor politicking and adjustments to the rapidly put together bill, the House GOP garnered enough votes to send the bill to the Senate by a vote tally of 217-212.
The Trump administration and House Republicans who were at the foresight of drafting the legislation by making assurances that the proposed health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act wouldn’t fuck with preexisting conditions, allowing people to maintain their coverage or lowering premiums.
Assurances are one thing but uncertainty is something totally different, something this bill still largely extrudes.
That uncertainty lies within the simple fact that the Congressional Budget Office hadn’t had a chance to review the new legislation before a vote was cast Thursday. The CBO as we know gives an estimate on the cost of a proposed bill and in this case how many people it will cover (or not cover). To add, Republican House members like representative Carlos Curbelo out of Florida told the media that some still haven’t read the drafted legislations as of Wednesday night.
But… republican rep. Mark Meadows made more assurances that the CBO would give their review before the Senate was to place a vote on the bill themselves.
What?
So House republicans passed a piece of legislation on to the Senate without fully being aware the total cost and coverage of the Obamacare repeal and replace? How responsible…
According to Vox’s Sarah Kliff, the bill currently on its way to the Senate would more than likely phase out Medicaid, cut taxes for the wealthy, allow states to get waivers for key Obamacare requirements such as forcing insurers to cover “essential health benefits” and charging everyone the same despite health history. Furthermore Kliff also points about the replacement would in general benefit healthy rich people and screw over the poor and sick.
But before any of this is actually signed into law, the bill still has plenty of hurdles to pass through in Congress. Senate approval isn’t guaranteed even with a republican held majority. Not to mention any revisions to the bill (which you would expect) would require the already contentious draft to be sent back down to the House where another tug-of-war is likely to ensue.
