Utah Senators Split On Republican Health Bill

Giving in too much to conservatives will lose him moderate votes.

Four conservative Republican senators - Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson and Mike Lee - said they opposed the current version. People with pre-existing conditions will keep their health care. "They're paying for tax cuts with American lives", the senator tweeted to 2.5 million followers with a video attached.

And Susan Collins of ME restated her opposition to blocking federal money for Planned Parenthood.

"The initial proposal I think is more generous and more positive to the industry than expected", said Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager with Gabelli Funds.

The Senate measure would make major cuts in the Medicaid program for poor and disabled people.

The early opposition of Senate conservatives is a blow to the bill but doesn't mean it's dead yet, even though Republicans control only 52 seats and can afford no more than two defections and still pass the measure. If it passes, it would have to reconciled with the House version before Trump could sign it into law.

Democrats and some insurers say Trump has sabotaged the Affordable Care Act, in part by threatening to withhold subsidies paid to insurers so they can reduce deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for millions of low-income people. That would focus the aid more on people with lower incomes than the House legislation, which bases its subsidies on age.

President Trump declared at his Iowa rally that if he came up with the greatest health care plan in history, "we would not get one Democrat vote".

Ms. Warren did not mention that her analysis comes before the Congressional Budget Office has had a chance to score the bill.

We finally got a glimpse of the Senate's attempt to "fix" the American health care system. Those decisions in this legislation include what each state's insurers would have to cover and how much each state wants to spend on the Medicaid program. While Obama has repeatedly defended the Affordable Care Act, which represents perhaps his most significant domestic legislative achievement, Thursday's statement was even more pointed than his previous comments. John McCain has said how he will vote.

McConnell, eager to approve the legislation next week, indicated he was open to changes before it reaches the Senate floor.

Former President Barack Obama says the Senate's GOP-written health care bill will cause millions of families to lose health care coverage.

"We live in the wealthiest country on earth".

And they would bar people from using tax credits to buy policies that pay for abortion, and also block Planned Parenthood from getting any money from Medicaid for a year. But Medicaid has also been eating up an ever-larger share of federal spending, so the Republican plan puts a lid on that by rolling back the Obama-era expansion of the program and then granting states a set amount of money for each person enrolled.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has an impossible task, which is why he is very likely to fail.

The tax was part of Obama's health law, and it has always been unpopular among Republicans, as well as business groups and labor.

But the 142-page draft would allow states to drop several benefits which are now mandated, such as maternity care and hospital services, and also would abolish the requirement for most Americans to have health insurance. "The proposed cuts to Medicaid under this bill will be devastating for children, seniors and people living with disabilities for whom health care is critical".