Mark Pocan: House GOP rushing to pass doomed health care bill

May 04--As the U.S. House neared a historic vote on a bill to overhaul the U.S. health care system, Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said his GOP colleagues are rushing to pass it before the release of a nonpartisan report that will show its impact.

Wisconsin Republican members of Congress were largely mum before the vote on the American Health Care Act, would would remake large swaths of former President Barack Obama's health care law.

A spokesman for Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wausau, said Thursday that he will vote for the bill.

Spokespersons for Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay, and Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, had not responded to Wisconsin State Journal inquiries shortly after noon Thursday. A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, said she did not yet know how he would vote.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan will support the measure, which he helped craft as the top-ranking U.S. House member.

Pocan, D-Black Earth, criticized Republicans for voting on the bill without waiting for a score of it from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which would estimate how the bill would affect consumers and the federal budget. Some outlets are reporting the CBO score will be released as soon as next week.

"To not know how it's going to directly affect your constituents is really political malpractice," Pocan said.

Duffy, Grothman and Sensenbrenner said in March, when a previous version of the bill was set for a vote before being pulled, that they were prepared to vote for it.

Gallagher said in March that he "had concerns" with the earlier version of the bill, "including the fact that it did not address the true, underlying drivers of cost in our healthcare system."

Since March, House Republicans have modified the bill to allow states to opt out of key provisions in Obama's Affordable Care Act, including protections for people with pre-existing health conditions and a required set of health coverage benefits. The changes are expected to win support from hard-line conservatives in the chamber's Freedom Caucus who felt the bill's previous version didn't do enough to dismantle Obama's health care law.

Pocan and spokespersons for Democratic Reps. Ron Kind of La Crosse and Gwen Moore of Milwaukee said they would strongly oppose the measure.

The next stop for the bill would be the U.S. Senate, where it faces an uncertain future.

Pocan predicted the Senate would not pass the bill in its current form.

"The Senate, I don't think, will accept this package the way it is," Pocan said.

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