‘First time we were hearing of them’: The GOP megabill is packed with surprises for some Republicans
The House Energy and Commerce Committee was 16 hours into a nearly 27-hour markup when it became clear that top Republicans on the panel weren’t clear on what key Medicaid provisions in the legislation they were actively debating would actually do.
Couple that with confusion from moderates over the committee’s complex and controversial proposal — including language to dramatically overhaul the popular health safety-net program with new work requirements and cost-sharing mandates — and it spells possible troubles ahead for the domestic policy megabill central to enacting President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
It could also further complicate last-minute negotiations on final text before the House is set to vote on the full package next week, especially with hard-liners pushing for even deeper cuts.
“There were some items in there that, it was the first time we were hearing of them,” GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who represents a competitive district in Pennsylvania he just flipped red, said in an interview.
Mackenzie is among a group of centrist Republicans not on the Energy and Commerce Committee —
which advanced its portion of the bill Wednesday — taken by surprise by some elements of the panel’s Medicaid proposal. They have requested a meeting with GOP leadership to talk through some of their potential concerns about provisions dealing with Medicaid and the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Some of those moderates are likely to be in a Thursday morning meeting that Speaker Mike Johnson has planned with hard-line conservatives pushing for steeper Medicaid slashing and blue-state Republicans warring over a separate key tax deduction.
Of particular concern among a band of centrists is a new cost-sharing requirement for some Medicaid beneficiaries that would add new requirements for Americans with incomes at or just above the poverty line to pay for a portion of Medicaid services.
“That was a new element that ... had not been discussed with us before,” said Mackenzie. Another centrist House GOP lawmaker Sunday night remarked they expected there would be “problems” with the final list of Medicaid overhaul proposals being pitched.
Energy and Commerce Republicans rolled out their legislation late Sunday night that would produce massive savings — $301 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office — as part of a broader Medicaid overhaul from the committee that would lead to 7.6 million people going uninsured, according to a partial estimate from the nonpartisan scorekeeper.
Republicans argue the number includes “able-bodied” Americans and immigrants in the country illegally who should not be entitled to government health coverage. The Energy and Commerce Committee needs to cut $880 billion in total from programs under its purview.
As it turns out, the legislation also would disqualify Americans from getting health insurance at lower costs through the Affordable Care Act marketplace if they otherwise qualified to receive Medicaid but failed to meet new work requirements — something that appeared to catch key GOP members of Energy and Commerce by surprise.
In the early hours Wednesday morning, members of both parties slogged through the wonky details of a provision that would add federal work requirements as a condition of enrolling in the safety-net program.
At one point, a committee aide was asked to weigh in on the matter and confirm the GOP draft bill would, in fact, prevent low-income Americans from getting subsidized marketplace insurance plans if they didn’t meet a new, more stringent Medicaid work requirement.
The discussion of what the work requirements would do began with a question from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who asked Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) why people under the Republican proposal would be prevented from buying into the Affordable Care Act plans at a subsidized rate.
Guthrie replied, “I don’t know of anyone would be prevented from buying that — I don’t know the answer about the ACA.”
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the health subcommittee ranking member, fired back, “If you don’t think anybody would be bumped off, why would you have that provision in the bill?”
That’s when Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the full committee ranking member, stepped in.
“The [Congressional Budget Office] assumed exactly what you said: If I’m kicked off Medicaid because I didn’t file the paperwork — which is what CBO says is the main reason why people are kicked off, not because they’re not eligible … then the CBO assumed they would naturally then go to the ACA marketplace, the exchange, and buy a subsidized policy, and therefore there’d be no savings,” said Pallone, directing his comments to Ocasio-Cortez.
Republicans “want to meet this draconian cut so … they have to say to those people, ‘You can’t go to the marketplace,’” Pallone continued.
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), the panel’s environment subcommittee chair, thanked Pallone for the explanation: “The people would have an option to go to the ACA plans, if I understand it correctly.”
Pallone interjected, “The bill says you can go to the marketplace and pay full freight, but you can’t get the subsidy. They can’t afford the full freight.”
Guthrie then asked the committee’s counsel to clarify the provision, at which point the counsel explained that if a person is eligible for Medicaid but fails the proposed Medicaid work requirements, they would indeed be ineligible for the subsidized marketplace plans.
The broader exchange prompted attacks from Democrats outside the committee.
“They rushed this cruel bill to markup in the dead of night without even understanding what they were voting on,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in
a social media post. “The American people deserve leaders who will fight for them, not destroy their lives to hand billionaires another round of tax cuts.”
Committee Republican staff later argued that Democrats’ response to the provision, which they see as simply a clarification of current law, was overblown.
“The Democrats tried to blow that up to make this into a big scandalous thing where we’re double-kicking people off coverage,” a committee GOP staffer granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said, adding the situation would apply to a very limited group of people. “That's just not the case. It’s really hard to explain from the dais via members at 3 o'clock.”
Griffith, in a statement after the final party-line vote on the package, also fired back.
“Congressional Democrats and progressive prognosticators shouted day and night that the Energy and Commerce Committee couldn’t make budget recommendations without massive, significant cuts to Medicaid. And yet, House Republicans proved them all wrong,” he said.
Link
www.threads.com
