Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Bipartisanship, Once A Four-Letter Word, More Appealing To GOP After Failure To Pass Bill
Regrouping after a rocky few weeks, the White House declared Monday that President Donald Trump doesn't consider the health care battle to be over, suggesting he may turn to Democrats to help him overhaul the system after his own party rejected his proposal. (Thomas, 3/27)
It鈥檚 not clear whether Democrats, who largely sat back and let the repeal effort collapse on its own, have much incentive to negotiate yet. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said his party is willing to discuss improvements to the law, but only if Republicans drop their seven-year-long dream of repealing it.聽He urged Trump to immediately cease all efforts to undermine the law. "People鈥檚 lives are at stake," he said聽on the Senate floor Monday. "The president should not hope that the health-care system for tens of millions explodes." (Dennis, 3/27)
With Republican leaders pausing their quest to overturn the 2010 health care law, rank-and-file lawmakers see an opportunity for outreach behind the scenes on the divisive issue. GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine will keep talking to senators and stakeholders about their bill, the Patient Freedom Act, which they believe is a rare avenue for bipartisan cooperation. 鈥淚 like to think the Cassidy-Collins bill is well-positioned as a path forward,鈥 Cassidy said Monday. (Bowman, 3/28)
鈥淚 urge my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, to take a look at the legislation Senator Bill Cassidy and I have introduced, which would expand access to affordable health care in a way that provides more choices and helps to restrain costs,鈥 Collins said Friday in a statement after Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pulled the GOP repeal bill from the House floor. (Reid, 3/27)
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan told Republican donors Monday that he intends to continue pushing for an overhaul of the nation鈥檚 health-care system by working 鈥渙n two tracks鈥 as he also pursues other elements of President Trump鈥檚 agenda.聽"We are going to keep getting at this thing,鈥 Ryan said three days after intraparty opposition forced him to pull the American Health Care Act after it became clear it did not have enough Republican votes to pass. (DeBonis, 3/27)
For many GOP lawmakers, the idea of giving up after just 18 days of work on health care changes, was not an option. 鈥淲e cannot walk away now, without even a vote,鈥 said Rep. Luke Messer (R-IN), a junior member of the House GOP leadership, said on the House floor. (Dupree, 3/27)
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that Trump is sincere about working with Democrats on healthcare reform. 鈥淪tarting Friday afternoon through late yesterday, [Trump] has received a number of calls, as well as other members of the senior staff that have been working on healthcare, from members of both sides saying that they would like to work together, offer up ideas and have suggestions about how to come to a resolution on this and get a House vote on this,鈥 he said during his daily briefing. (Hensch, 3/27)
After more than seven years of railing against the Affordable Care Act, Republicans were unable to reach consensus on a plan to repeal and replace it. House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the bill Friday afternoon and said the party was moving on to other issues. So what happens now? (Young, 3/27)
Still reeling from last week鈥檚 House health care debacle, Republicans are pivoting to tax cuts and other issues but remain riven into factions and all over the map about how and when to return to their marquee pledge to eviscerate former President Barack Obama鈥檚 2010 overhaul. House Republicans are gathering Tuesday to discuss their agenda, their first meeting since House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., suddenly abandoned plans last Friday for a vote on the GOP legislation. The retreat on the party鈥檚 top legislative priority so far this year was a jarring defeat for President Donald Trump and Republican leaders and raised questions about whether the GOP could muster the unity it will need on other issues. (Fram, 3/28)
The failure to repeal and replace ObamaCare has cast a shadow over President Trump鈥檚 agenda for the rest of the year. Republicans say efforts to reform the tax code and pass a major infrastructure package will be just as difficult and warn their control of the House could be in jeopardy if the conservative House Freedom Caucus refuses to cooperate in the months ahead. (Bolton, 3/28)
After months of promising so much winning people would tire of winning, President Donald Trump straight up lost last week on one of the biggest promises of his campaign. Lost starkly, plainly, publicly on replacing Obamacare 鈥 and at the hands of his own party. So now what? (Ashbrook, 3/27)
California embraced the Affordable Care Act and in many ways became a national model for how it could work 鈥 driving uninsured rates down from about 17 percent to 7 percent since the law rolled out. The state added 3.7 million people to the rolls under its Medicaid expansion, and 1.5 million joined its state-run marketplace, Covered California. Compared to other states, the exchange鈥檚 premium increases have remained low, though they have risen聽substantially this year. (3/28)
Rep. Andy Harris, part of the conservative Freedom Caucus that helped tank President Donald Trump's health care legislation, said Monday that Republicans only needed a little more time to reach an agreement and that the House should return to the issue later this year. The 30-plus-member bloc of deficit hawks has found itself under fire from some in the GOP as congressional leaders and the White House assess what went wrong with their plan to repeal the Obamacare health insurance law 鈥 and begin to assign blame. That soul-searching could have implications for the rest of Trump's legislative agenda, including tax reform, infrastructure investment and spending cuts. (Fritze, 3/27)