Details of a draft to repeal and replace Obamacare remained murky on Monday, even as senators expressed a lack of consensus over whether Republicans would be able to pass a bill at all this year.
The Trump administration is encouraging a vote by the summer recess, but various members expressed doubt over such a timeline, or even setting a deadline for the remainder of 2017.
“I don’t think we can put it together among ourselves,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Monday. During the Memorial Day recess, other GOP senators making similar remarks included Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
A draft of a bill is expected soon. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, told reporters that senators would see a “draft of the draft” for a bill Tuesday and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, part of the initial healthcare working group, said they made steady progress but still had “quite a bit of work” to do.
Details of what would be in the bill were unclear. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who has introduced his own bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, said it was important to repeal the employer mandate, which obligates companies with 50 employees or more to provide coverage, and said changes needed to be made to Medicaid.
“Medicaid is going to be very problematic for states under the status quo,” he said.
What to do with Medicaid has been a major sticking point for Republicans, particularly since many Republican governors chose to expand the healthcare program for low-income people under Obamacare. A Congressional Budget Office evaluation of the House bill passed to repeal and replace Obamacare, called the American Health Care Act, projected that spending on Medicaid would decrease by $800 billion over a decade if the bill became law, a figure that several lawmakers have said they are concerned about.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., noted some of the difficulties of coming to a consensus to get the votes needed to pass the bill through reconciliation. Republicans can afford to lose no more than two votes in the Senate, assuming a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence. Shelby said that he supports repealing portions of Obamacare that would go into effect April 15 of next year, and then bringing on bipartisan support to fix the healthcare system.
“I’ve thought all along we should repeal it outright,” Shelby said. “But some Republicans don’t want to do that.”
Senators stressed that the details were still being discussed, both at working group meetings happening twice a week and healthcare lunches happening three times a week.
“We just got back from recess so I guess we’ll learn tonight or tomorrow morning about what they have been talking about in the interim,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. “So we’ll see. I know there’s a work in progress on it.”
Asked whether he shared concerns that a bill wouldn’t pass this year, Rubio replied: “Tough issue, but I think there will be one.”
Sen. John Barrasso, part of the initial healthcare working group, said he expects the debate to continue. “We are going to have meetings tomorrow,” he said. “I assume we will hear a lot from members about what they heard when they were at home and talk about different options that we have.”
Barrasso, R-Wyo., said he was optimistic that Republicans could pass a bill this year, though he would not say whether the Senate would be able to vote before the summer recess.
“I’m confident we’ll get a bill passed and get something working together with the House and get something the president is going to sign,” he said.
Al Weaver contributed to this report.
