July 12, 2017 04:59 PM UTC

Senate GOP Prepares to Offer Same Bill with Different Name

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• by: Colorado Pols

Senate Republicans plan to introduce a new differently-named healthcare bill on Thursday. As NBC News reports, get ready for BCRA 2.0: “Same Shit, Different Words”:

Senate Republicans are preparing to unveil a revised health care bill that aims to attract support from wary Republicans, but early indications suggest the proposed changes do little to address concerns about the current deep cuts to Medicaid, possibly putting the bill’s path to passage in peril.

Numerous changes have been made to the new version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act to appease both conservative and moderate Republicans as leadership searches for the 50 votes they need to pass it. In a blow to the more moderate faction, it appears the more than $700 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid will still be part of the measure, according to numerous senators describing what leadership has told them about the bill.

“My understanding is that remains the same,” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., a proponent of the Medicaid cuts, of the Medicaid portion of the bill. [Pols emphasis]

Things could still change as the bill’s contents are yet final and the new text is expected to be released Thursday. Still, the prospects of creating a more generous Medicaid program appear to be dim.

Just so we’re clear on the Medicaid piece, here’s a quote from The Hill:

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Barrasso (Wyo.) said, “What we had in the original bill has not changed with regard to Medicaid.”

They’re not cutting Medicaid…they’re just making it sustainable. If it doesn’t exist at all, then it shouldn’t be hard to fund, right? It’s all about the “glide path.”