Here are five things to know.
1. Senate GOP leaders aim to have a Senate floor vote on the healthcare bill prior to the month-long August recess. However, the leaders have struggled to get at least 50 Republican senators to support the bill. The leaders face a wide array of obstacles, including “disagreement among Republican senators about how the nation’s healthcare laws should be structured,” along with frustration regarding the process used to craft the BCRA and concerns from some about a proposed amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, under which insurers could offer plans that fail to meet ACA requirements as long as they also offer other plans that meet those requirements, according to the report.
2. Now President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., plan to target individual senators as they try to garner more support for the evolving healthcare bill, Republicans familiar with their plans told The Washington Post.
3. President Trump plans to publicly renounce the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the BCRA, a White House official familiar with the president’s strategy told The Washington Post. The CBO’s analysis estimates the legislation would result in 22 million more uninsured people by 2026. The White House official told The Washington Post President Trump plans to counter the analysis, using conservative groups’ figures and analyses, to show the bill would result in more benefits and less disruption.
4. Mr. Pence, the report states, plans to try to garner support from skeptical GOP senators he has already contacted, including Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.
5. As far as Mr. McConnell, it is anticipated he will “place greater responsibility on Sen. Ted Cruz to pitch his controversial amendment,” according to the report.
Read the full report here.
