Senate, House Republicans clash over health-care bill

Despite the chest-pound- ing by President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in the House over the passage of Trumpcare, the legislation faces a bleak future in the Senate.

GOP senators who are in the majority wasted no time in signaling that the measure to repeal and replace Obamacare is dead on arrival.

That’s how it should be – given the Senate’s traditional role as the deliberative body in Congress. We use the words traditional role because of late the upper chamber has shown a disturbing willingness to let partisan politics rule the day.

But Republicans know from public opinion polls that most Americans do not want to become sacrificial lambs in President Trump’s push to keep a major campaign promise made to his supporters: to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare.

“I’m going to read the House bill, find out what it costs and where I find good ideas there, why we’ll borrow them. But basically we’re writing our own bill,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the health committee, told the Associated Press.

The measure that was rammed through the House with Republican votes only is flawed on several fronts.

For one thing, the Congressional Budget Office has not scored the bill to determine the human and economic costs of this version of Trumpcare.

The original House bill, which died earlier this year on the legislative vine, would have punished more than 20 million Americans with the loss of the health-care coverage they now receive under the Affordable Care Act.

The other flaw with the bill that passed the House last week is the provision that dilutes consumer-friendly insurance coverage requirements. Under the GOP plan, states would be allowed to let insurers charge higher premiums for customers with pre- existing medical conditions.

Spike in costs

Polls show older citizens are most worried about the spike in costs because many cannot afford the exorbitant premiums that are anticipated.

The House GOP sought to soften the blow by setting aside $8 billion to be spent over five years for the high-risk pools. But experts say the allocation would fall far short of what would be needed if the House version of Trumpcare becomes law.

The measure would also water down the subsidies that help consumers afford health insurance.

Most significantly, the House-passed Trumpcare would cut Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled, and end extra federal payments to 31 states that expanded Medicaid to cover more people.

Ohio is one of the recipients of federal payments because of Gov. John Kasich’s decision to expand the eligibility for Medicaid so more people could receive health-care coverage under Obama-care.

Kasich, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president, has made it clear he will fight any attempt by Congress and the White House to roll back Ohio’s Medicaid expansion,

It is estimated that 900,000 Ohioans would lose health-care coverage under the House-passed bill. In addition, 200,000 Ohioans currently receiving treatment for opioid addiction through Obamacare would be left to fend for themselves.

It is clear the House GOP leadership and President Trump were bound and determined to pass a bill that begins the process of repealing and replacing Obamacare. They were stung by their failure to rally the troops in the first go-around and were, therefore, willing to make compromises to win support from House members who opposed the original measure.

While we applaud the Republican majority in the Senate for putting the brakes on the anti-Obamacare bill, we are concerned about what comes next.

Senators have set up a working group of about a dozen lawmakers to examine how to craft the Senate’s health bill.

But as Sen. Ron Wyden, R-Oregon, noted, “Convening a group of men behind closed doors to scheme how to make care worse for women is as gutless as it gets.”

Killing Obamacare is a priority for Republicans, but health care is an issue that must be discussed by lawmakers in the open. Closed-door meetings do not inspire confidence.