After the House of Representatives passed H.R.1628 – American Health Care Act of 2017 to repeal and replace Obamacare, the bill was sent to the Senate, where many groups are hoping for major changes to the legislation. The Hill reports that, “industry groups felt largely cut out of the House’s drafting and passage of the American Health Care Act and now are clamoring for action to fix what they view as serious defects in the legislation. Major hospital and doctor associations, for example, want people with health insurance to stay covered and are pushing to ensure adequate funding for the Medicaid program. Characterizing this wish list, one healthcare lobbyist put it simply: “Coverage, coverage, coverage.”
Groups wishing for major changes to the House bill are optimistic as Republican senators quickly suggested changes would be required. “We’re writing a Senate bill and not passing the House bill,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) in a Politico report. “We’ll take whatever good ideas we find there that meet our goals… There will be no artificial deadlines in the Senate. We’ll move with a sense of urgency but we won’t stop until we think we have it right.” said Alexander, who will be a leading figure in the Senate’s overhaul effort.”
Major outside influences such as the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, and AARP have all been critical of the House bill. AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond, wrote in a letter sent to every Senator earlier this week that, “The deeply flawed House bill would add an Age Tax, increasing health care costs by thousands of dollars each year we grow older, and put millions of American families at risk of finding health care unaffordable or unavailable…AARP urges you to ‘start from scratch’ and craft health care legislation that ensures robust insurance market protections, controls costs, improves quality, and provides affordable coverage to all Americans.”
