EDITORIAL: Give us a better bill

June 16--President Donald Trump no longer likes the "very, very, incredibly well-crafted" health care plan he touted when it passed the House May 4.

He wants the Senate to produce something much better. It should be "generous, kind, with heart. That is what I am saying," Trump told reporters before meeting with a group of 13 senators Wednesday. "And that may be adding additional money into it. We are going to come out with a real bill, not Obamacare."

And apparently not the American Health Care Act, either -- despite the political risk that many Republican House members took in voting for a measure that would slash health care spending and leave millions more people without coverage, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

They went out on a limb but earned praise from the president at a Rose Garden ceremony. Not only had they written a "great plan," Trump said then, but "This has brought the Republican Party together."

This week, those House members got the thorns. The prickly president reportedly even called the AHCA "mean."

We agree, and we also hope the Senate comes up with a "generous" alternative to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. It was never perfect, or even close, and now it's shedding people as insurers pull out of markets or raise premiums beyond what most can afford. That's not only a result of inherent flaws in the system but because the Trump administration isn't supporting it as the law requires. If subsidies aren't provided to cushion premiums, and if penalties aren't assessed to push young, healthy Americans into coverage, a collapse is possible. So Congress must either shore up the current system or write a better bill.

The House utterly failed -- as even Trump seems to realize. The Senate must do better -- but the signs aren't good. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell picked 12 senators -- all men, all Republicans -- to draft a bill in secret. There will be no hearings, no opportunity for the public to see what will be proposed.

"We'll let you see the bill when we finally release it," McConnell told reporters Tuesday. But that could be the very day it's voted on.

When the leader of the Senate wants to hide major legislation, that's a hint he doesn't think it will be popular. For McConnell, it's more important to pass a bill than for it to be a good bill.

So, what about Trump? He's all over the place -- and nowhere. In January, he promised "health insurance for everybody" but never made that demand to Congress. During his campaign, he promised to make no cuts to Medicaid. His proposed budget, tracking the AHCA, would cut $800 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. In February, he pronounced: "Nobody knew health care could be so complicated."

So it's anybody's guess whether he'll applaud a Senate bill that's every bit as miserly as the House bill, or if he really means what he said Wednesday. But if he truly wants Americans to have adequate coverage at affordable costs, he must remain engaged in the process. He must call for preserving the Medicaid expansion, which even many Republican governors accepted. He must make sure that people with pre-existing medical conditions aren't excluded from coverage. He must protect middle-aged or older Americans from higher premiums that the AHCA would expose them to, according to the CBO.

We'll take the president at his word that he does want a better health care system created in his name. But he has to do more than make lofty pronouncements. He must stay engaged in the process. When he signs a bill into law, Americans will know if it's "very, very, incredibly well-crafted" -- or a disaster.

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