- Senate Republicans Unveil New Health Bill, but Divisions Remain New York Times by Robert Pear and Thomas Kaplan—Senate Republican leaders on Thursday unveiled a fresh proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, revising their bill to help hold down insurance costs for consumers while allowing insurers to sell new low-cost, stripped-down policies. Those changes and others, including a decision to keep a pair of taxes on high-income people and to expand the use of tax-favored health savings accounts, were intended to bridge a vast gap between the Senate's most conservative Republicans, who want less regulation of health insurance, and moderate Republicans concerned about people who would be left uninsured. But Republican leaders will have to battle for votes ahead of a final showdown they hope will come next week.
- Senate Health Care Bill: 5 Hurdles Republicans Are Facing to Pass the Bill USA Today by Erin Kelly—Senate Republicans hope their latest proposed bill to replace Obamacare will attract enough votes from the moderate and conservative wings of their party to pass next week. But there are at least five hurdles that could derail efforts to reach consensus. They include: 1. The bill still makes major cuts to Medicaid. 2. It does not fully repeal Obamacare. 3. It still raises costs for older Americans. 4. It still defunds Planned Parenthood. 5. Two GOP senators are offering a potentially attractive alternative.
- McConnell: Senate Will Work Through First Two Weeks of August Recess Politico by Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will keep the Senate in session the first two weeks of August, the Kentucky Republican announced Tuesday—as the GOP faces a daunting to-do list that includes repealing Obamacare and raising the debt limit. "In order to provide more time to complete action on important legislative items and process nominees that have been stalled by a lack of cooperation from our friends across the aisle, the Senate will delay the start of the August recess until the third week of August," McConnell said.
- Obamacare 101: Is There a Smaller Fix for the Affordable Care Act? Los Angeles Times by Noam Levey—With Senate Republicans struggling to find votes for sweeping legislation to roll back the Affordable Care Act, several GOP lawmakers have raised the prospect of a more limited bill—passed with help from Democrats—to stabilize health insurance markets around the country. That may be heresy for conservative Republicans who've spent seven years demanding the full repeal of Obamacare, as the law is often called. But most patient advocates, physician groups, hospitals, and even many health insurers say more-targeted fixes to insurance marketplaces make more sense than the kind of far-reaching overhaul of government health programs that Republicans have been discussing.
- White House Analysis of Health Bill Seeks to Discredit CBO The Hill by Nathaniel Weixel—The White House on Wednesday released its own internal analysis of the Senate's Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill in an attempt to push back against the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) findings. In a statement, the White House said the CBO estimates about the Better Care Reconciliation Act's Medicaid impact "should be discounted because of the large errors made by the agency in estimating the toll of the Affordable Care Act." The Council of Economic Advisors' analysis is part of a larger campaign by the White House to discredit the official congressional scorekeeping agency. The administration also released a video, accusing the CBO of using "faulty assumptions and bad numbers" to create scores for the House and Senate GOP Obamacare repeal and replace bills.