Members of the U.S. Senate have varying prognoses about when -- or even if -- the upper chamber will be able to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said on a radio talk show Wednesday the Senate will vote no later than “the end of July” on the American Health Care Act passed earlier this month by the House of Representatives, according to The Hill.
“One thing I’m sure of is it won’t be perfect,” Cornyn said on The Chad Hasty Show. "But if it’s better than Obamacare, I think we will have fulfilled our promise we made election after election to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
However, Sen. Jeff Flake told members of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce the vote might not happen this summer at all, according to The Washington Post.
“There are some still saying that we’ll vote before the August break,” Flake said. “I have a hard time believing that.”
The Arizona senator says health care costs need to be lowered, as many of his constituents are spending more each month on health care than their mortgages. However, more than a quarter of Arizonans are on Medicaid, and many would be hurt if the program’s budget were to be cut.
Flake told the chamber members that he supports the cuts, but only if governors can take more control of the program and if the program remains “sustainable” so that beneficiaries “don’t have the rug pulled out from under them.”
Meanwhile, both of the Republican senators from Iowa -- Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst -- say efforts to repeal the ACA will likely fail, and that the more realistic outcome will be tweaks to the current health care law, according to CBS News.
“You can't repeal it in its entirety," due to the Senate's filibuster rule, Ernst told reporters after a joint appearance with Grassley in suburban Des Moines.
“You've got to have 60 votes and we don't have 60 votes at this point,” Grassley added.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for the Senate to end the filibuster and allow legislation to pass with a simple majority.
“The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy,” Trump tweeted. “Dems would do it, no doubt!”
However, getting enough Republicans in both chambers to agree on replacement legislation will likely prove to be too difficult, the Iowa senators say.
Ernst says the Senate will be able to make individual changes to the ACA where only a simple majority vote is required. For instance, she mentioned changing mandatory health care benefits required by insurers as ripe for Senate action.
If the repeal and replacement effort fails, Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Bill Cassidy are working on bipartisan legislation with senators on both sides of the aisle to make more substantial changes to the current law.
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Katie Kuehner-Hebert
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a freelance writer based in Running Springs, Calif. She has more than three decades of journalism experience, with particular expertise in employee benefits and other human resource topics.
