West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito wants the Senate’s healthcare bill to drastically increase the funding to fight opioid abuse and change Medicaid’s growth rate to get her support.
The key centrist, who is opposed to the current bill, went to a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Wednesday that will focus on her demands for changing the Senate bill.
Capito said on her way to McConnell’s office that she wants to adjust the growth rate for Medicaid, which the current bill caps. She said she wants a growth rate that “matches the projected spending in Medicaid over 10 years.”
Capito also wants $45 billion in opioid funding over 10 years, far more than the $2 billion now in the bill.
She also wants to create “more robust help for older and less affluent rural people.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would be more difficult for low-income people to buy affordable coverage under the Senate bill. That is because the Senate bill pegs tax credits to help pay for the cost of insurance to a plan that requires insurers to cover about 58 percent of healthcare costs.
Obamacare’s tax credits are pegged to a plan that has insurers cover 70 percent.
It is not clear how McConnell plans to mollify centrists concerned about the Medicaid growth rate and the credits. Under Senate rules for reconciliation, which lets a bill be passed with only 51 votes instead of 60 needed to stop a filibuster, the bill must save roughly $111 billion.
The CBO estimated that the bill would save roughly $321 billion, meaning McConnell has some money to work with.
