Republican health care push coming
WASHINGTON – Republicans seem set to start muscling legislation through Congress reshaping the country’s health care system after seven years of saber rattling. Don’t confuse that with GOP unity or assume that success is guaranteed. Unresolved disputes over taxes and Medicaid rage and conservatives complaining that Republican proposals don’t go far enough could undermine the effort, or at least make GOP leaders’ lives difficult.
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Repealing President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul has long been the GOP holy grail. It helped elect President Donald Trump and has driven the Republican agenda in Congress, given GOP office-seekers a rationale for their candidacies and fueled countless fundraising appeals.
Yet Republicans have never rallied behind an alternative and spent years settling for dozens of bills scuttling the law that went nowhere. Now, with a GOP president and party control of the House and Senate, voters expect Republicans to deliver and party leaders are banking on it.
“If you’re a Republican who votes against ‘Obamacare’ repeal, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do to your constituents,” said Doug Badger, a GOP health care adviser.
There are few hard-line conservatives on the two committees poised to vote this week, so the panels will likely approve the legislation over unified Democratic opposition.