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GOP, Trump pull AHCA due to lack of support
Republicans pulled a bill that would have overhauled the nation’s health care system by replacing the Affordable Care Act with Republican-penned legislation. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said he and President Donald J. Trump agreed that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) should be pulled because Republicans did not have enough votes to pass it.
“Obamacare is the law of the land. It’s going to remain the law of the land until it’s replaced,” Ryan said. “We are going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.”
Still facing opposition from within their own party, House Republicans called a recess on Friday afternoon at around 3:30 p.m. EDT, the time they had said a vote on the AHCA would finally be held. The move came after Republicans postponed a vote on Thursday that was scheduled for the seventh anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the ACA, his signature health care legislation.
Unofficial tallies this week placed the Republicans dozens of votes shy of the 216 needed to move the AHCA through the House and send it to the Senate. Around mid-day on Friday, Ryan visited the White House to update Trump, apparently still lacking enough “yeses.”
Trump, who campaigned on repealing and replacing the ACA, had reportedly demanded that a vote be held Friday, telling lawmakers to either support the new legislation or move forward with the ACA still in place. By Friday afternoon, Ryan said they were in agreement that no vote should be held.
“Moving from an opposition party to a governing party comes with growing pains. And, well, we’re feeling those pains today,” Ryan said. “We came really close today.”
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump did all he could to get the bill passed by either meeting with or speaking on the phone to over 120 members of the House over the past few days and it was up to them to decide.
“He’s left everything on the field,” Spicer said during his daily briefing, before the bill was pulled. “This is the final hour to make that decision.”
The two postponements came amid opposition from factions within the Republican party, particularly the Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative Republicans who favored a broader repeal of the old bill, and the more moderate Tuesday Group.
Trump reportedly agreed to a request from members of the Freedom Caucus to strip an ACA mandate requiring health insurers to cover 10 “essential benefits,” including emergency services, maternity and newborn care, and mental and behavioral health benefits. Instead, decisions about these services would be turned over to individual states.
The AHCA has been criticized by numerous medical organizations, including the ACP, AMA, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and 100 HIV/AIDS groups.
Republicans have been critical of the ACA since Obama signed the bill, which mandates that all Americans have health insurance or face a tax. They have been optimistic that their version will improve health coverage for millions of Americans, even as some Republicans wish for a full repeal instead. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said on the House floor that he prefers a full repeal of the ACA and considered the AHCA the “first bite of the repeal apple.”
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said more people have declined health insurance and paid the tax than have signed up for coverage under the ACA.
“In the choice between Obamacare and less freedom and President Trump and more freedom, I choose President Trump,” Brady said not long before the bill was pulled.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a new report on Thursday that said new amendments to the AHCA related to tax provisions and Medicaid would reduce federal savings from $337 billion to $150 billion over the next 10 years compared with a previous version of the bill. The CBO estimates that the AHCA would lead to 24 million more uninsured people by the year 2026 than under the current law.
The CBO also estimates that the bill would slash federal funding for Medicaid, substantially increase premiums for older Americans and reduce premiums for younger people. – by Gerard Gallagher