June vote on AHCA possible, but bill could be destined to fail

Republican leaders in the Senate are aiming for a vote on their version of an Affordable Care Act (ACA) replacement by the end of June, with the goal of ending the healthcare debate so it doesn’t get in the way of the rest of the party’s legislative agenda.

According to POLITICO, a month of negotiations haven’t smoothed over all divisions amongst Republicans over how the change the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA). While the caucus is closer to agreements on reducing premiums and offering subsidies for buying insurance, there’s still plenty of debate over cutting Medicaid funding and rolling back the ACA’s expansion of the program.

So the plan is finalize the bill by mid-June, giving the Congressional Budget Office two weeks to analyze it before a June 30 vote. If it passes, then Republicans have one month to try and bridge expected differences between the House and Senate bills.

If it fails, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, wants to have a “decisive end” to the ACA repeal debate so Republicans can move onto other priorities, leaving open the possibility of smaller healthcare bills to deal with uncertainty in the individual market and rising premiums.

“He wants to be done with this one way or the other,” said one person familiar with the negotiations.

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