Conservatives Warm to Last-Ditch Obamacare Plan as Options Run Out

Conservative critics of Obamacare are like a guy at a party looking to score.

After striking out with prettier women, and the night getting later, even Lindsey Graham starts looking attractive.

Republicans in the Senate have failed to assemble a majority for earlier bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That means the only remaining option is a proposal offered by the South Carolina Republican and fellow Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and Dean Heller (R-Nev.).

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It would repeal mandates on people to buy insurance and larger companies to provide it to their employees. It also would repeal Obamacare’s medical device tax but keep most of the other levies. And it would phase out the expansion of Medicaid that the Affordable Care Act ushered in.

Instead, it would create a block grant to states from the additional Medicaid money and cash that now funds subsidies for lower- and middle-income Americans buying private insurance through government-run exchanges. Governors would be empowered to design their own health care plans. It would keep many of Obamacare’s regulations but give states more flexibility to set their own rules.

Many conservative activists rejected the idea when Graham pitched it months ago. But the budget procedure that Senate Republicans used to avoid the possibility of a filibuster expires at the end of the month. With that reality staring them in the face, some conservatives have warmed to the idea.

But not enthusiastically.

A statement released Monday by Tea Party Patriots was so lukewarm that the activist group was compelled to issue a second statement clarifying that it supported passage of the bill.

“Some have mistakenly interpreted a line explaining how we arrived at our position to claim that Tea Party Patriots opposes the legislation,” the group’s president, Jenny Beth Martin, said in the statement. “This interpretation is wrong, and I want to make it clear — Tea Party Patriots supports the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson legislation as a step toward full repeal of ObamaCare.”

Count Rand Paul Out
But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) came out against the bill Monday, citing a continuation of Obamacare funding and regulations.

“Oh, it rearranges the furniture a bit, changes some names, and otherwise masks what is really going on — a redistribution of Obamacare taxes and a new Republican entitlement program, funded nearly as extravagantly as Obamacare,” he said in a statement.

“It concerns me when a well-respected senator like Rand Paul says it keeps 90 percent of Obamacare.”

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told LifeZette that he does not know enough about the details to take a position on the bill. But he expressed reservations.

“It concerns me when a well-respected senator like Rand Paul says it keeps 90 percent of Obamacare,” he said.

As with previous repeal efforts whose skeletal remains litter the Senate floor, the Graham-led bill faces an uphill road. In order to become law, it needs a rating from the Congressional Budget Office, a commitment from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to hold a vote, hearings before the Senate Finance and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees, hours of debate and then at least 50 “yea” votes.

Then it has to pass the House of Representatives, which already approved a substantially different proposal. There is not time for a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences in the two bills as would be the case with normal legislation. The House would have to adopt the Senate bill word for word.

Given the difficultly in passing the bill that the House did, that may be impossible.

But some conservatives said it is worth trying. Michael Johns, executive director of Tea Party Community and a health care consultant, called for a more pragmatic approach.

“I think the position ought to be to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” he said.

Tea Party Activist Urges Pragmatism
The Graham-Cassidy bill represents a major improvement over Obamacare, Johns said. Congress could always revisit taxes left in place by the law, he said.

The bill got a major boost on Monday when Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey endorsed it as “the best path forward to repeal and replace Obamacare.” Ducey’s support is important because Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited the governor’s opposition to a previous bill as justification for casting the deciding vote against it.

Still, McCain so far has declined to back his good friend Graham’s proposal.

The margin for error once again is thin. No Democrats are expected to vote “yes,” which means the GOP can only afford to lose one additional senator beyond Paul.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who helped kill the previous effort, indicated she was undecided on the current proposal. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who cast the other “no” vote last time, told The New York Times that she remains concerned about the effect on Medicaid spending and private insurance premiums — particularly on those between the ages of 50 and 64.

David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, said his group could support the bill if its authors agree to include a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to let states opt out of Obamacare regulations.

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“Make no mistake, passage of Graham-Cassidy legislation is not the end of the effort to repeal Obamacare,” he said in a statement. “Conservatives will continue to fight for Congress to do more to repeal Obamacare in order to protect families who have suffered greatly from increased health insurance costs.”

Brooks rejected the conventional wisdom that this is the last chance to repeal Obamacare. He said lawmakers always could start fresh next year.

“It’s a nonstop, never-ending fight,” he said. “If you believe President [Donald] Trump, Obamacare is going to collapse under its own weight.”