September 20, 2017

“The health insurance industry, after cautiously watching Republican health care efforts for months, came out forcefully on Wednesday against the Senate’s latest bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, suggesting that its state-by-state block grants could create health care chaos in the short term and a Balkanized, uncertain insurance market,” the New York Times reports.

“In the face of the industry opposition, Senate Republican leaders nevertheless said they would push for a showdown vote next week on the legislation, drafted by Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.”

A new analysis finds the latest Republican bill to repeal Obamacare “would set the stage for a decade of new health care fights as states struggle to cover residents with less money and an unstable source of funding,” NBC News reports.

“Experts say the long and difficult process to implement Graham-Cassidy could create years of chaos in the insurance market, potentially hiking premiums and unsettling markets in 2018 and beyond.”

Said health care analyst Billy Wynne: “I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how disruptive this would be.”

In an interview with Politico, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) sounded like he could end up tanking the latest GOP health care bill even though it was written by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), his close friend.

Said McCain: “Nothing has changed. If McConnell wants to put it on the floor, that’s up to McConnell. I am the same as I was before. I want the regular order.”

For members: Republicans Are Bluffing

“I could maybe give you 10 reasons why this bill shouldn’t be considered. But Republicans campaigned on this so often that you have a responsibility to carry out what you said in the campaign. That’s pretty much as much of a reason as the substance of the bill.”

— Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), quoted by the Des Moines Register, on the Graham-Cassidy health care bill.

Gov. Chris Christie (R) said that he opposes the latest Senate plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, deeming it “too injurious” to New Jersey, Politico reports.

Said Christie: “I’m certainly not going to support a bill that takes nearly $4 billion from people in the state.”

Josh Barro: “On Tuesday evening, Robert VerBruggen of National Review noticed something odd: The financial projections produced by Sen. Bill Cassidy’s office showed that, in 2026, his healthcare proposal would award each state almost precisely $4,400 in federal subsidy per “eligible beneficiary” — except Alaska, which would receive $6,500, or 48% more than everybody else.”

“Hmm. Do we know anybody from Alaska?”

“Making things odder: Neither VerBruggen nor I could locate the provision in the bill that seemed to authorize this Alaska Purchase. So I asked a staffer in Cassidy’s office and was told they are revising the projections. The spreadsheet came down off the senator’s website after I inquired about it.”

Sarah Kliff: “I have spent the bulk of 2017 writing about the different Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Graham-Cassidy, in my view, is the most radical of them all.”

“While other Republican plans essentially create a poorly funded version of the Affordable Care Act, Graham-Cassidy blows it up. The bill offered by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy takes money from states that did a good job getting residents covered under Obamacare and gives it to states that did not. It eliminates an expansion of the Medicaid program that covers millions of Americans in favor of block grants. States aren’t required to use the money to get people covered or to help subsidize low- and middle-income earners, as Obamacare does now.”

“Plus, the bill includes other drastic changes that appeared in some previous bills. Insurers in the private marketplace would be allowed to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions, for example. And it would eliminate the individual mandate as other bills would have, but this time there is no replacement. Most analysts agree that would inject chaos into the individual market.”

Sam Baker: “The Senate’s health-care overhaul would quickly pull $215 billion in federal funding out of the health care system, and those cuts could later grow as high as $4 trillion, according to a new analysis from the consulting firm Avalere Health.”