President Trump Meets With GOP Senators at White House

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence hosted Republican senators at the White House to discuss flailing efforts to pass a new health care bill.

Most of the GOP senators arrived at the White House Tuesday after Senate Republican leaders shelved a vote on their prized health care bill Tuesday until at least next month.

A GOP rebellion left them lacking enough votes to even begin debate.

Trump said Tuesday that "we're getting very close but for the country we have to have health care."

Trump invited the GOP senators for a meeting in the East Room to discuss efforts to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's signature health care bill.

He says "I think the Senate bill is going to be great."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said health care is "a big complicated subject," and complicated bills are "hard to pull together and hard to pass." He told reporters on Tuesday that he was very optimistic.

Earlier, Utah Sen. Mike Lee  became the fifth Republican senator to oppose starting debate on the GOP health care bill. 

Lee was among four conservative senators who announced last week they oppose the bill's current version. Lee spokesman Conn Carroll said Tuesday that the lawmaker will not vote for a crucial procedural motion allowing the Senate to begin debate on the legislation, unless it's changed.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can lose the votes of only two of the 52 Republican senators to begin debate and ultimately pass the bill. All Democrats oppose it.

Lee has favored a fuller repeal of President Barack Obama's health care law than the current GOP bill.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he has faith in McConnell's ability to round up the votes for the Republican health care bill despite growing opposition in the Senate.

Ryan told reporters on Tuesday: "I would not bet against Mitch McConnell."

The Wisconsin Republican said he has every expectation that the Senate will move ahead on the bill, which the Congressional Budget Office says would kick 22 million off the insurance rolls. The bill would cut taxes, reduce the deficit and phase out the Medicaid expansion implemented by Barack Obama's health law.

Ryan said every Republican senator campaigned on repealing and replacing Obama's law.

The speaker said House members are waiting to see what happens in the Senate. The House could try to vote after the Senate to push the bill and get it to President Donald Trump before the weeklong July 4th recess.

The current Senate health care bill would result in 22 million more uninsured Americans over the next decade compared to current law.

That's according to an analysis Monday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The figure may further complicate Senate GOP leaders' plans to pass their bill this week. It's barely an improvement upon the health care bill that passed the House - which would have resulted in 23 million more uninsured.

Several GOP senators have said they want to see their bill cover more people than the House version. And President Donald Trump himself called the House bill "mean" - though he's lent his support to the Senate version and is lobbying for passage.

Earlier Senate Republicans issued their revised version of their health care bill. The changes include a penalty for people who let their insurance lapse.

Under the new package, people who lacked coverage for at least 63 days in the past year and then buy a policy would face a six-month delay before it takes effect.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released his initial measure last week. It had no penalty for people who let their coverage expire.

The waiting period is designed to prompt healthy people who might not otherwise buy insurance to do so. That helps insurance companies pay for sicker customers who are more expensive to cover.

McConnell is hoping to push the measure through the Senate by the end of this week, but some Republicans are rebelling.

Here are some changes according to the Senate Committee on the Budget:

• Help stabilize collapsing insurance markets that have left millions of Americans with no options.
• Free the American people from the onerous Obamacare mandates that require them to purchase insurance they don’t want or can’t afford.
• Improve the affordability of health insurance, which keeps getting more expensive under Obamacare.
• Preserve access to care for Americans with pre-existing conditions, and allow children to stay on their parents’ health insurance through age 26.
• Strengthen Medicaid for those who need it most by giving states more flexibility while ensuring that those who rely on this program won’t have the rug pulled out from under them.

Read the full bill here:

The White House released this statement on the CBO Healthcare report:

“The CBO has consistently proven it cannot accurately predict how healthcare legislation will impact insurance coverage. This history of inaccuracy, as demonstrated by its flawed report on coverage, premiums, and predicted deficit arising out of Obamacare, reminds us that its analysis must not be trusted blindly. In 2013, the CBO estimated that 24 million people would have coverage under Obamacare by 2016. It was off by an astounding 13 million people – more than half – as less than 11 million were actually covered. Then, CBO estimated that 30 million fewer people would be uninsured in 2016, but then it had to reduce its estimate to 22 million, further illustrating its inability to present reliable healthcare predictions. 

“We know the facts. To date, we have seen average individual market premiums more than double and insurers across the country opting out of healthcare exchanges. As more and more people continue to lose coverage and face fewer healthcare choices, President Trump is committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare, which has failed the American people for far too long.”

U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) released the following statement on the newly released CBO score:

“Another day, another appalling CBO score as Republicans continue their despicable mission to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This sham of a bill does a serious disservice to Nevadans who rely on the ACA for life-saving care and this report proves that. I stand with the 400,000 Nevadans who are at risk of losing their healthcare due to this reckless bill. We will continue to speak out before this bill – a tax cut for the wealthy masquerading as a healthcare bill that cuts funding for the poor – can do any real damage.”

Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) released this statement: 

“The CBO score confirms that the bill in its current form doesn’t go far enough to lower costs for Nevada families or protect Nevadans on Medicaid. I am working with my colleagues and the Administration to make it work for Nevada.”

Congresswoman Jacky Rosen (NV-03) released the following statement on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score:

“This nonpartisan analysis confirms that the Senate version of Trumpcare is just as heartless as its House counterpart. Thousands of families across my district – including women, veterans, seniors, disabled Americans, and vulnerable children – would lose access to health care if this type of legislation becomes law. And the bill keeps getting worse: the most recent version also includes a new provision that could lock Americans out of their health coverage for six months just for moving or changing jobs. This report underscores again that this is not a health care plan - it's a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires paid for by stripping away people's coverage, and it does absolutely nothing to lower premiums for Nevadans."

Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada’s First Congressional District released the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office:

“Republicans have spent years bemoaning Obamacare but are unable to find a solution of their own. The CBO’s report suggests that next year premiums will increase by 20 percent and 22 million more people will be uninsured within the next decade. Out-of-pocket costs will skyrocket for families and guaranteed Essential Health Benefits for cancer screenings, preventive care, and maternity care will become a thing of the past. The cost-savings in this bill will be sent to the super wealthy at the expense of working families, diminishing the quality of care and jeopardizing the health and financial security of working Americans.”

The American Medical Association sent a letter Monday to Senate leaders saying the draft legislation violates the medical oath to "first, do no harm."

The letter says the Republican plan is likely to lead to higher costs and greater difficulty in affording care for low- and middle-income patients.

The doctors' group says the Senate bill's Medicaid payment formulas threaten to "limit states' ability to address the health care needs of their most vulnerable citizens" and won't keep up with new medical innovations and epidemics such as the opioid addiction crisis.

The letter is signed by Dr. James L. Madara, the group's CEO. The AMA has about a quarter-million members.

Last week Nevada Senator Dean Heller became the fifth Republican senator to come out against the new Senate health care plan. He joins four others who say it does not do enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act and lower health care costs. 

He joins Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. 

If three of the five Republicans against the legislation vote in opposition, it will die in the Senate.

Saturday President Trump tweeted: "I cannot imagine that these very fine Republican Senators would allow the American people to suffer a broken ObamaCare any longer!"

The president is promising some last minute changes to the Senate Republican health care bill to try to secure enough votes to get the legislation passed.

"We have a very good plan.  We have a few people who are modestly, not standing on the rooftop screaming, they want to get some points, I think they'll get some points," said President Trump to Fox News.

Some Democrats held events this past weekend to stand up against the bill, dubbed the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland said, "Make no mistake. This bill in the Senate, like the one in the House, would be a U-turn on the progress we've made when it comes to affordable care in the United States of America."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he wants to hold a vote on the bill before the July 4th recess, which will likely be this Thursday. 

----

Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller says he opposes the GOP bill scuttling much of the Obama health care law, complicating the effort by party leaders to guide the measure through the Senate. 

The proposal released Thursday calls for a slower phase-out of the Medicaid expansion than a bill adopted by the House. Yet it still would force those states, including Nevada to figure out what to do about the millions of lower-income Americans who used it to gain health coverage.

“The current bill, as written, is something that needs to change. And that’s one of the things I want to talk about today," says Governor Brian Sandoval. "There’s still an opportunity to make this bill better. To make it better for Nevadans." 

Besides Sandoval, Ohio Governor John Kasich also says the GOP plan could leave hundreds of thousands of people in their states without coverage, including those dealing with chronic health problems.

Senators Heller and Catherine Cortez Masto have said they want a bill that keeps Nevada's Medicaid expansion program in place. That could make a huge difference for people in rural counties.

"It's difficult in our rural communities just to even get some of our health care providers there, and then geographically, they're challenged," Cortez Masto, D-Nevada said. "If they can't have access to health care there in their communities, they have to drive long distances."

Cortez Masto says small town residents have better health coverage and access because of the ACA.

"Our rural hospitals are able to provide more programming and they've actually hired more people in our hospitals to address the need for many people who have insurance for the first time," Cortez Masto said.

"To me, the most important thing is the Medicaid expansion portion of it, and to make sure that Nevadans continue to have insurance," Heller, R-Nevada said.

On Friday he again said he opposed the bill. "This bill that is currently in front of the United States Senate is simply not the answer. I'm announcing today that, in this form, I will not support it."

Senator Heller is the fifth Republican senator to say he will not back the bill. Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky are the four other senators. On Thursday they released this statement: “Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor. There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system, but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs.”

(The Associated Press also contributed to this report.)