Sen. Susan Collins said she is upset that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office won’t have enough time to fully review a last-minute bill to overhaul Obamacare.
The Maine Republican has not taken a position on the bill co-sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. However, she said she was concerned that CBO said that it won’t be able to determine how the bill would affect insurer coverage and premiums by early next week.
“That’s problematic because that is part of the problem of short-circuiting the process,” she told reporters Monday.
The CBO does plan to have a preliminary estimate on the bill’s impact on the deficit.
Republicans are rushing to vote on the bill before Sept. 30, when instructions to use a tool called reconciliation expire. Reconciliation allows a bill to be approved with a simple majority instead of the 60 normally needed to break a filibuster.
Collins was among three Republican senators to vote against a “skinny” Obamacare repeal bill in late July that would have scaled back big parts of the law. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and John McCain, R-Ariz., joined her in opposing the legislation that failed 49-51.
Republicans are trying again with new legislation that would eliminate Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates and give Obamacare funding to states in the form of block grants.
Collins has not taken an official position on the legislation but hinted she has major concerns about how it would affect Maine.
“The Maine Hospital Association has calculated that Maine would receive $1 billion less in Medicaid and other federal healthcare spending in the next decade,” she said. “That is obviously of great concern to me.”
Funding was also a concern for Murkowski, who remains undecided with McCain.
Block grants give flexibility to states but without enough money to make “a difference” in the amount of flexibility states have, she told reporters.
McCain hasn’t made a decision either. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said Monday he supports the bill, calling it a step forward toward repealing and replacing Obamacare.
However, McCain has been upset with the process used by Republicans to try to repeal Obamacare. He has criticized GOP leaders for not holding committee hearings or taking into account views from Democrats.
The only Republican to publicly oppose the bill is Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is angry it leaves in too much of the law’s taxes and mandates. All of the chamber’s Democrats are expected to oppose it.
Republicans have scheduled one hearing on block grants for healthcare in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which is headed by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Johnson is another co-sponsor of the Graham-Cassidy legislation with Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.
