"They'd like to get certain changes".
Now that the Senate Republican health care bill is public, it is clearer than ever why Majority Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans hid it for weeks.
"What I've told leadership very clearly is I'm going to need time and my constituents are going to need time to evaluate exactly how this is going to affect them", Johnson said.
Health care stocks pulled back Friday, but the sector was still on track to post a weekly gain of more than 3 percent. "I have serious concerns about the bill's impact on the Nevadans who depend on Medicaid", Senator Dean Heller, his party's most vulnerable incumbent in the 2018 elections, said of his constituents.
"There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs", reads the statement.
The Senate bill would phase out extra money Obama's law provides to 31 states that agreed to expand coverage under the federal-state Medicaid program.
GOP senator says Iowans might not lose Medicaid
The bill also scales back federal funding for Medicaid - which is more than half the spending for the program at the state level. For the House of Representatives' version of healthcare, Trump held regular meetings with representatives at the White House.
An outside political group aligned with the White House, America First Policies, said it is planning an advertising campaign targeting Heller for his opposition to the bill.
He says that there is never going to be a bill that has it all and makes everyone happy. Whether the four Republican senators are posturing for a better deal or will go to the mattresses on principle, we don't know. It is, to borrow President Trump's behind the scenes assessment of the House's bill, mean. Of course, they were there because insurance works by lots of healthy people paying in, and only a a few sick people needing a payout.
Medical coverage for multiple conditions - including maternity care and mental health - would not be required after 2019, with states having control regarding what is covered. Veteran Senator John McCain said the draft bill was better than Obamacare in "100 ways", but like many Senators wanted to study the bill further and consult with his state's governor.
Sen. Ted Cruz is one of four Republican senators who aren't on board with that chamber's version of the American Health Care Act. But if this effort continues, any bill reforming Medicaid payments (absent the expansion population) should be a data-driven analysis of funding levels needed to protect the most at-risk patients.
Senate Democrats have lined up against the bill, along with four Republicans, which is more than enough to defeat the bill.
Heller said he is also wary of the Senate legislation because it does not include spending to address the nation's opioid epidemic, and because it would allow states to opt out of Obamacare's Essential Health Benefits requirement, which requires health plans to cover hospitalizations, substance abuse treatment and other basic health care services.
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