Republican Senators Face Pushback From Governors on the Health Bill

[question everything]

Source: WSJ

Republican senators, back home on recess this week, are hearing from some influential critics of their health-law push: GOP governors, many of whom are urging them to resist the legislation because it would cut Medicaid funding.

These governors, some of whose states stand to lose billions of dollars in Medicaid funding under the Senate bill, are likely to press senators to keep as much of that money as possible. That pressure reflects a risk taken by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), perhaps unavoidably, in deciding to delay a vote on the GOP health-care bill until after lawmakers return to Washington the week of July 10.

Most vocal are those governors of states that expanded their Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. The bill would phase out that expansion and also transform the safety-net program from an open-ended system in which states get a guaranteed federal matching rate tied to what they spent into one in which the federal government’s share would be capped. In all, the bill would cut $772 billion in funding for the program over a decade.

(snip)

The 50 governors have varying views of the Senate bill, which would roll back many provisions of the ACA in addition to the Medicaid changes. The bill would also cut taxes cumulatively by more than $500 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, including repealing taxes on health industries and high-income households.

Some governors agree with Senate GOP leaders that the Medicaid program should be trimmed back. But governors in the 31 states that expanded the program generally say the bill’s cuts go too far, and 20 Senate Republicans represent such states. Medicaid, the state-federal safety-net program that covers the disabled and low-income women and children, covers roughly one in five Americans, or more than 70 million people.


Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/republican-senators-face-pushback-from-governors-on-the-health-bill-1498993201

[bitterross]

1. The governors get it - LOSS OF BILLIONS OF $$$

That's right, they stand to lose billions of dollars that provide jobs and healthcare in their states and be left with the sick people still there and still to care for. It is a lose-lose for them and they know it.

[Qutzupalotl]

2. The tax-cut/reconciliation strategy is never going to work

or give a positive outcome, except for the extremeley wealthy. I doubt any form of this will get to 50 votes. Republicans need to get serious and actually work with Democrats on positive changes or abandon this effort altogether.