Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pence Rallies GOP Lawmakers Toward Repeal; But Disagreements Over Strategy Still Emerge
Republicans are fast-tracking the process of repealing Obamacare, aiming to get it done in several weeks. But they’re not even close to agreement about what comes next — or even when the repeal should take effect. Those disagreements spilled over Wednesday at a closed-door meeting with Vice President-elect Mike Pence that had been intended to unify the Senate GOP. Instead, multiple senators stood up to express concern that the party’s plans to repeal and replace the law could blow massive holes in the budget, according to a source familiar with the exchange. (Haberkorn and Everett, 1/4)
Congressional Republicans on Wednesday launched their long-promised effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, even as they acknowledged that they may need several months to develop a replacement along conservative lines. Signifying how enormous a priority the issue is for the incoming administration, Vice President-elect Mike Pence met privately to discuss it with House and Senate Republicans. He offered no details afterward about what a new health-care law might look like but vowed to unwind the existing one through a mixture of executive actions and legislation. (Eilperin, Goldstein and Snell, 1/4)
House Republicans on Wednesday cast Vice President-elect Mike Pence as a conservative white knight uniquely qualified to dismantle the 2010 health care law, while shrugging off his decision to embrace the law’s Medicaid expansion while governor of Indiana. (Bennett, 1/4)
The vice president-elect's schedule also included a meeting with one Senate Democrat --
Sen. Joe Manchin met privately with Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Wednesday .... Manchin's meeting with Pence comes after he skipped a closed-door session with Obama earlier on Wednesday, arguing he wouldn't attend a meeting about ObamaCare with only Democrats. "If anyone listened and paid attention to what the American people said when they voted, they want this place to work," he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday morning. "We have the incoming vice president coming up to talk only to Republicans. ...That's not what makes this place work and that's really what's wrong with the place. I just think it's absolutely wrong." (Carney, 1/4)
