On Tuesday, President Donald Trump discussed health care reform with fifteen Republican senators, encouraging them to move in a different direction from the House-passed health care legislation.
According to two Senate aides, whose bosses attended the lunch meeting at the White House, Trump described the legislation as “mean.”
“He talked about making sure we have a bill that protects people. We talked a little bit about the tax credit to make that work for low-income elderly people. And he certainly is fine with us taking a different direction that what the House did,” said Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, who attended the meeting.
The House passed the legislation at hand last month, a big victory for the president. Following the House’s approval, Trump held a news conference in the Rose Garden surrounded by members of Congress, praising them for passing a “great plan.”
This “plan” will push back certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, replacing them with Republican ideas.
During the first few minutes of Tuesday’s meeting, which were open to the press, Trump stated that the Senate is creating “a phenomenal” bill.
However, the lunch brought little agreement on how to gain the support of almost all Republican senators, which is needed for the legislation to pass the Senate.
Republican senators disagree on several major parts of the House-passed legislation, such as how to handle Medicaid and its expansion under Obamacare.
During his meeting with the selected senators, President Trump urged them to work out their differences.
“I think we have the same dynamic in the caucus that we’ve had for a long time – people who are in different places on how we fix Medicaid and other issues,” Thune said to reporters following the meeting.
According to Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who seeks to protect the Medicaid program that expanded under Obamacare in his state, the meeting did not lead to a closer agreement among senators.
“That wasn’t the purpose of it,” stated Portman.
Senators seem to agree that the new health care legislation should protect people with pre-existing conditions. Trump also asserted that senators need to “make sure” to protect them, said Thune.
But preserving coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and Medicaid, funded by Obamacare taxes, proves to be a challenge for Republican senators. While the House-passed legislation repealed $1 trillion worth of Obamacare taxes, the Senate will most likely pass a more expensive bill to ensure this coverage.
Senators are divided on which Obamacare taxes to keep, said Republican Senator David Perdue of Georgia. These taxes include a tax on insurance companies, a medical device tax, a tax on investment income and an income tax on couples making more than $250,000 per year.
“That’s the part that’s moving around on us,” said Perdue.
Congress and Trump disagree on the issue of cost-sharing reduction payments as well. These subsidies help low-income customers with insurance pay for out-of-pocket fees.
The president would like to put a stop to the reduction payments, which would cause insurance companies to leave the individual insurance market. In turn, many people would not have access to health insurance or would have fewer insurance options.
Nonetheless, the Republicans all agree that time is running out. While no one is enforcing an “arbitrary deadline,” some Republican leaders had hoped to vote on a health care bill before July.
The Senate must have a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office before it votes. A CBO analysis of the health care bill will take 10 to 14 days.
Thus, in order for the July deadline to be met, the Senate will have to send text of the legislation to the CBO by the end of this week.
When reporters questioned him, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah did not believe the bill could be finished within the next three days.
“By the end of this week? I don’t think so,” Hatch stated.
