Blunt, GOP leaders back new health bill

Sept. 20--Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the U.S. Senate, considered the failure in July of a measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act and said then, "I would suggest we turn the page."

The New York Democrat must have known that would be a long shot.

Republican senators this week have revived a repeal-and-replace bill they hope will succeed where the July legislation fell short.

"I think there is a legitimate chance in the next few days to look at this proposal that would essentially take all of the health care money and just turn it back over to the states," said Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican who has signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill.

The so-called Cassidy-Graham Bill, conceived by GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has gained momentum in the Senate chamber, enough to encourage repeal advocates and mobilize opponents.

Among the bill's features, states would get block grants for use in administering health care programs.

"Our goal, by 2026, is to make sure that every patient in every state gets the same contribution roughly from the federal government, and allow people in your states to make decisions that would have been made in Washington," Graham said on Tuesday.

Backers claim greater flexibility and efficiency would arise from such an arrangement.

"It not just puts a little more control (in the states), it puts unbelievably high levels of control closer to where families are," Blunt said Tuesday in a radio interview on NewsTalk 97.1 in St. Louis. "What works in Missouri very likely doesn't work as well in New York or Utah."

The Missourian said his state would get 186 percent more money for health care under the Cassidy-Graham legislation. Blunt added that four states -- California, New York, Massachusetts and Maryland -- now get 40 percent of all federal health care money.

"This would be a fairer distribution of that," he said.

The majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, agreed with the emphasis on taking health decisions away from Washington.

"Governors and state legislators of both parties would have both the opportunity and the responsibility to help make quality and affordable health care available to their citizens in a way that works for their own particular states," McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Schumer took a dimmer view of this. The Democrat especially recoiled against the fact that the Congressional Budget Office, which measures legislation for its impacts, announced it would not have a full analysis of the bill until the end of the month.

Republicans hope to vote on the measure before then to take advantage of budget reconciliation protections, expiring on Sept. 30, that enable them to cut off filibusters with 51 votes.

The New York senator called the GOP actions "grossly irresponsible" while others in his party maneuvered to line up multiple amendments to slow the process.

"Senators will be voting blind," Schumer said Tuesday. "You know, they say justice is blind but the senators on the other side of the aisle should be walking around here with a blindfold over their eyes."

Later in the day, Schumer produced a letter signed by 10 governors, including four Republicans and one independent, opposing Cassidy-Graham and seeking a bipartisan health care solution.

Defense measure passes

On Monday night, the Senate voted 89 to 8 in passing the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2018 fiscal year.

The measure proved significant for St. Joseph because it includes funding for a C-130H full motion simulator for the 139th Airlift Wing of the Missouri Air National Guard. It also approves construction for a communications facility.

Blunt and Missouri colleague Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, voted in favor of the defense bill, as did Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, both Republicans.

The bill heads next to the White House, where President Trump is expected to sign it into law.

___

(c)2017 the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.)

Visit the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.) at www.newspressnow.com/index.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.