WARWICK – The American Health Care Act as envisioned and approved last week by the U.S. House of Representatives will be revised substantially by the Senate, Rhode Island’s senators predicted on Monday, speaking in a question-and-answer session at the 2017 Congressional Breakfast.
The annual breakfast arranged by the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce was focused on the first 100 days of the administration of President Donald Trump and covered subjects including the president’s initial efforts at national healthcare, immigration and tax reform. The breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick attracted an audience of about 500.
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Attending were the full Congressional delegation for Rhode Island, all Democrats, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who was scheduled to leave for Washington D.C. later Monday to help preside over an oversight hearing featuring the testimony of former Attorney General Sally Yates.
Yates is being asked to share what she told the Trump administration about Russian interference in the U.S. election, before she was fired for not enforcing Trump’s first executive order on immigration from several majority-Muslim nations.
On that matter, Whitehouse said he expected Yates would speak to the tools used by the Russians, and what she said to the administration.
On the issue of the American Health Care Act, approved quickly last week by the GOP-led House, Whitehouse said he anticipated that the GOP’s Senate leadership would direct the matter to a committee, to allow time to revise the bill as needed.
Sen. Jack Reed said the bill is not ready for approval and will need to be revised. He suggested the process could take months.
“The bill itself … is not something that’s ready for prime time,” he said. “Our colleagues are talking about coming up with their own bill, and that could take months because we actually have to talk about it.”
For Rhode Island, the GOP-backed bill is problematic because it would change the form of Medicaid funding to block grants made to the states, according to the delegation, one of the changes that state officials worry could short-change funds for Rhode Islanders.
And if the bill is not revised to retain the Affordable Care Act requirement that insurance rates for older Americans be capped at three times the rate of the least expensive group, people aged 50 to 64 will see their insurance rates “explode,” Reed said.
“My sense is the house bill will not emerge from the Senate as it did from the House,” he said.
On other issues, the delegation was asked to consider a divergent result in a recent Chamber survey of its membership. Six months after President Trump’s election, said Chamber President Laurie White, the membership is divided about whether he has taken steps to improve the economy.
The economic rally, post-election, is the greatest since John F. Kennedy, she noted, yet 35 percent of the chamber’s membership in the poll said they felt “fearful” about the future.
U.S. Rep. David Cicilline said in fairness, the economic conditions of recent months speak more to the previous Obama administration than to 100 days of the Trump presidency.
A short-term gain, such as a stock rally, is something that may have resulted from his promises to reduce tax burdens on business and cut regulations, Cicilline said. But long-term growth should be the priority.
“I think most people recognize that, long-term, what you need for sustained growth is a stronger middle class,” he said. “What businesses really need are more customers.”
Whitehouse, addressing the same question, said the election revealed that many Americans do feel “forgotten,” and he referenced Trump’s inaugural address, in which the president promised those who felt left behind that they would not be forgotten.
“No one in America should feel forgotten,” Whitehouse said.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN.
