Republicans Say Obamacare Repeal Starts This Spring

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told reporters that he is working off of Speaker Paul Ryan‘s (R-Wis.) timeline of moving repeal legislation by the end of March.

“That’s the timetable I’m working off of,” Brady said. “We’re continuing on a good, deliberate, but pretty steady pace.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told reporters that a repeal bill under the fast-track process called reconciliation could come up in the Senate even within the next 30 days.

“Hopefully in the next 30 days or so,” Cornyn said when asked when he thinks the reconciliation bill could come up.

That could be an ambitious timeline, given the thorny issues Republicans have to work through when it comes to repeal and replacement of ObamaCare.

Trump told Fox News on Sunday that “maybe it’ll take till sometime into next year” to put forward a replacement plan, calling the process “very complicated.” Read more here: https://bit.ly/2kfbij3

President Trump said Sunday that it could take “sometime into next year” until his ObamaCare replacement plan is ready, a slower timetable than he and other Republicans have put forward in the past.

Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly asked Trump in an interview before the Super Bowl if Americans can “expect a new healthcare plan rolled out by the Trump Administration this year.”

“Yes, in the process and maybe it’ll take till sometime into next year but we’re certainly going to be in the process,” Trump replied.

“You have to remember ObamaCare doesn’t work so we are putting in a wonderful plan,” he added.

“It statutorily takes a while to get. We’re going to be putting it in fairly soon, I think that yes I would like to say by the end of the year at least the rudiments but we should have something within the year and the following year.”

Read more here: https://bit.ly/2lfic7J

Congressional Republicans are facing their first big decision on taxes under President Trump: Which ones to scrap in the repeal of ObamaCare.

Republicans have in the past sought to erase most of the big tax hikes in the healthcare law, and the chairmen of the tax-writing committees have expressed support for eliminating the taxes in a repeal bill.

“After spending seven years talking about the harm being caused by these taxes, it’s difficult to switch gears now and decide that they’re fine so long as they’re being used to pay for our healthcare bill,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Wednesday.

“All of the ObamaCare taxes need to go as part of the repeal process.”

But some GOP lawmakers have floated leaving them to help pay for their ObamaCare replacement plan, and the party has not yet settled on a path forward.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/2lbEA20

A Republican proposal to fund Medicaid through block grants could save the federal government more than $100 billion over five years, according to a new analysis released Monday.

The analysis from healthcare firm Avalere Health shows that if Medicaid were funded through block grants instead of through the open-ended commitment the program receives now, the federal government would save $150 billion by 2022. Similarly, shifting to per capita caps, in which states would receive a set amount of money per beneficiary, would save $110 billion over five years.

Congressional Republicans argue that changing Medicaid’s funding mechanism would give states more control over their programs. Democrats say that beneficiaries would face slashed benefits under either proposal, while states would face more costs. Read more here: https://bit.ly/2lin64N

Trump administration may use executive authority to tweak Obamacare’s rules (Huffington Post)

Trump FDA pick could undo decades of drug safeguards (The New York Times)

Big pharma’s offer to Trump: Discounts when drugs don’t work (Bloomberg)

Trump’s travel ban, aimed at terrorists, has blocked doctors (The New York Times)

FDA proposal on biotech drugs sparks criticism (The Hill)

Minnesota moves to shore up health insurance market (NPR)

Missouri’s elderly, disabled would face cuts under governor’s budget plan (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)