The Senate Republicans' health care bill may strive to be kinder than its House-originated counterpart — at the behest of President Donald Trump — but a new report indicates that it's still plenty mean on its own.
The Senate bill being discussed would gradually phase down the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, make it easier for states to out of certain regulations, completely cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood, alter the subsidies program and reduce taxes on the wealthy, according to a report by The Washington Post. Although the new bill tries to seem less mean than its predecessor by implementing its Medicaid cuts more gradually, it would also cut them more significantly than the House counterpart.
One staunch defender of the new bill is Senate Budget Chairman Mike Enzi of Wyoming.
"We’re trying to both keep it a short enough bill so that people could read it but covering enough things so that states will have the ability to do whatever they need to do,” Enzi told Politico.
Enzi also told The Washington Examiner that, whereas the Democrats claimed they would listen to Republicans when passing the Affordable Care Act but in his opinion never did so. "We're not trying to give the impression that we're going to listen to them," he said. "They never listened to us."
"I think there will be a lot of agreement on it," Enzi added. "There will be some questions because it is a very difficult thing with a lot of moving pieces. But I also think you're going to see a lot of outside groups that are going to say: ‘Yes, they got it.'"
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