Thursday, July 27, 2017

Running out of options to overhaul Obamacare, Senate Republicans ponder a 'skinny' repeal

The L.A. Times reports:
Unable to agree on a path forward to repealing the Affordable Care Act, Senate Republicans are reluctantly coalescing around what may be the last idea standing: a dramatically scaled-down bill that would leave most of the 2010 law in place.

The so-called skinny repeal is still a work in progress, but one version being floated would repeal only three Obamacare provisions — a medical device tax and the mandates that individuals buy health insurance and that large employers offer it.

That’s far cry from the years-long GOP promise to gut the law, also known as Obamacare. But the face-saving strategy, which could come to a vote as soon as Thursday, would at least allow senators to say they acted on something.

It could also trigger a conference committee with House lawmakers to reconcile the Senate bill with the more sweeping House repeal legislation, giving lawmakers another shot at reaching agreement.
The struggles against roll back.