U.S. President Donald Trump says he and his Republican colleagues in the Senate are facing “a very narrow path” in their seven-year effort to overhaul the national healthcare reforms championed by former President Barack Obama.
Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News, said, “I think we’re going to get there,” but acknowledged the complicated road in the coming days to “picking a plan that everybody is going to like.”
But he contended that the alternative to changing U.S. healthcare policies is the collapse of the law commonly known as Obamacare.
Thursday vote planned
Senate leaders plan to vote Thursday on a measure that would end the requirement that Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine if they do not, phase out federal subsidies to help lower-income people buy insurance, curb taxes on the wealthy and cut hundreds of billions of dollars in funding over the next several years for the government’s healthcare program for the poor and disabled.
But Republicans only hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, with all Democrats expected to vote against the Republican proposal. That means that Republican supporters of the legislation can only lose two Republican votes, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tie-breaking vote if the Senate splits 50-50.
Republican reluctance
Already five Republican senators have said they cannot vote for their party’s plan as it stands now, with four them saying it does not go far enough to curb provisions under the Obama law and one saying the cuts in healthcare payments for the poor go too far.
All appear ready to negotiate changes before the expected vote ahead of the week-long congressional recess around the July 4th holiday celebrating the U.S.’s 18th century independence from England. Other Republican lawmakers have also voiced reservations, casting doubt on the outcome.
Trump said he does not think Republicans voicing objections to the party’s proposal are “that far off” from supporting it.
In a Twitter comment Saturday, Trump voiced optimism about passage of the Republican plan, saying, “I cannot imagine that these very fine Republican Senators would allow the American people to suffer a broken ObamaCare any longer!”
He chided Democrats for their opposition to the Republican effort, saying, “Democrats slam GOP healthcare proposal as Obamacare premiums & deductibles increase by over 100%. Remember keep your doctor, keep your plan?”
Under Obamacare, about 20 million more people have been enrolled in insurance plans, many of them under the government’s Medicaid program for the poor and disabled, which Republicans now want to cut by more than $800 billion over the coming years even though Trump during his campaign for the White House said he would not curtail it.
But premiums for those buying insurance on the individual market under Obamacare, as opposed to those getting their insurance through their employer, have risen sharply and many Americans were not able to keep their same doctors or insurance plan as Obama had promised.
Ahead of the vote, Trump and lawmakers are waiting for an independent assessment from the Congressional Budget Office, possibly as early as Monday, on how many people would lose insurance if the Republican plan is enacted and projections on the cost of insurance in the next few years.
The CBO said that 23 million people would lose their insurance over the coming decade under a different version of the healthcare changes that House of Representatives narrowly approved last month.
Trump held a victory celebration in the Rose Garden of the White House after the House vote, but since then has called the legislation “mean.”
In the Sunday interview, Trump said, “I want to see a bill with heart.”
Ever since Obamacare was enacted in 2010 without any Republican votes, House Republicans voted dozens of times to repeal it, a futile effort as long as Obama was president. But repeal of the law could be possible with Republicans in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
The leader of the minority Senate Democrats, Senator Charles Schumer, said Sunday that Republicans have “at best a 50-50 chance” of approving their Senate proposal.
If the Senate approves its repeal version, either the House would have to pass the same bill or reconcile its version with the Senate’s before Trump could sign it into law.
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