Seem that a certain senior Senator from Tennessee Republican, Lamar Alexander, has a different take on getting rid of Obamacare. According to the NY Times the Senator wants to modify the Obamacare instead of wiping it of the face of the earth, like most of the members of the Freedom Caucus want to do. The Senator has his own version planned, Lamarcare instead of Trumpcare.
Seems the Senator want to take the go slow approach to the issue. Here’s a great quote right from his website:
“If your local bridge were ‘very near collapse,’ the first thing you would do is send in a rescue crew to repair it temporarily so no one else is hurt. Then you would build a better bridge, or more accurately, many bridges… and as they are finished, you would close the old bridge.”
The most important thing about the Senator is that he the chairmen of the Senate Health Committee. Being the chairmen of a Senate committee reminds me of the joke about the different parts of the body arguing about who is in charge. If you don’t know the joke go ask someone. But what it means is that he’s the gatekeeper of anything that the Trump Administration wants to do about healthcare.
On the side of movement The Senate Finance Committee approved Representative Tom Price as HHS secretary without and votes from the Democrats.
Now that Rep. Price as advanced from the Committee a vote by the full Senate is next. BUT, at that point we will have upper management for HHS is place. I think the next big question in terms of getting your bills paid by Medicare and Medicaid will be who will be the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
I also believe that Speaker Ryan said at his press conference on Feb. 2 that he expected to have a bill in place to replace Obamacare but not till next month.
Here’s an update this to post with quoting The Speaker who leaves the question of when much more open ended:
“The question there is: How long will it take for markets to be put in place, for markets to adjust?” Mr. Ryan told reporters on Jan. 5. “That question we don’t know the answer to.”
The general feeling by many on the Hill is that the President’s first two weeks didn’t go all that well and this has put Healthcare further back in the queue.