- From Wisconsin to Washington, the House of Representatives
narrowly passed its version of so-called American Health Care
Act late this week.
At a White House gathering after the vote, House Speaker Paul
Ryan claimed that ObamaCare is no longer viable.
- And that is why we have to repeal this law and put in place
a real vibrant marketplace with competition and lower premiums
for families.
That's what the American Health Care Act is all about.
- Under the bill passed in the House, subsidies for people to
help pay for plans are based on age instead of income.
Expanded Medicaid would go away.
Penalties for not having insurance are eliminated and
states would be able to decide how to cover people with
pre-existing conditions and which essential health benefits
to offer.
Tax increases on high-income earners that help pay for the
Affordable Care Act are eliminated.
Here's what Wisconsin U.S.
Senator Tammy Baldwin says about the bill, quote, President Trump
promised insurance or everybody but the House Republicans broke
that promise today by putting millions of people at risk of
losing health care coverage and forcing millions to pay more for
less care.
- High political drama played out over the Republicans' House
vote this week.
In tonight's Capitol Insight, we turn to Republican Bill McCoshen
who is managing partner with Capitol Consultants and Democrat
and executive director of One Wisconsin Now Scot Ross.
Thanks to both of you for being here.
- Thanks for having us.
- I saw this quote from a Kentucky congressman this week
saying the American Health Care Act is like a kidney stone.
The House doesn't care what happens to it as long as they
can pass it.
How real is that?
- I think there's some truth to that.
I mean it's obviously been a pretty high mountain to climb
for Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican conference.
They tried in late March and failed to get this over the goal
line.
And it was critical to this forward but I think it's
important for your viewers to understand it's just step one.
It's going to go to the United States Senate.
They'll make modifications to the bill.
And then it's likely to go to conference.
So there's a long way to go before it actually hits the
president's desk.
- Does this put politics over really important policy?
- I think absolutely.
When have you a bill that passes basically by two votes on
something that's one-sixth of the American economy where
24 million people are going to lose their health care.
We're going to lose protections for pre-existing conditions.
What are going to be those essential services that are cut?
I mean some of those essential benefits are things like
maternity care, childhood immunization and even substance
abuse programs.
So there's a real challenge out there.
And it was a terrible vote.
And I think it's a vote that's put things like Glenn Grothman's
district in play for 2018.
- I'd say this.
There was a lot of risk for Republicans.
There was risk of doing something and there was risk of
doing nothing.
Truthfully as a Republican strategist, I'd say there was a
far greater risk of doing nothing for the Republican
house.
If this is their number one promise they've had since 2010.
It is the one thing that's galvanized social conservatives
and economic conservatives for the last seven years.
And if they did not deliver on this, Republicans would have
been wiped out in 2018.
- And yet is it really construed at this moment as a
big, big win for Paul Ryan the way this went down?
- I don't think you can call it a big win for Paul Ryan because
he looked so feckless for a month or so
when they first tried this and then he had to pull it back.
I think the challenge that Ryan has is there's so much bad
that's going to come out of the bill.
If they got this bill through the Senate and they're not going
to-- essentially he would be at risk of losing his speakership
because there are so many people who are going to lose their care.
You may not remember who gave you your health care but you're
sure as heck going to blame who took it away from you.
- What about that?
He says that Glenn Grothman's district is in play because of
this.
Is that real?
- Not a chance.
He hasn't had serious opposition in that seat.
I mean the way that---I just don't think any of our Wisconsin
congressman are going to be at risk as a result of this vote
because they're going to get one more kick at the cat.
Some like Congressman Mike Gallagher have said he had some
concerns about this bill.
He's hopeful the senate will make modifications and I think
probably folks like Duffy, Sean Duffy and Glenn Grothman feel
the same way.
- Wait, Mike Gallagher said something about this piece of
legislation because for six weeks he didn't say a word
despite when the media would contact him.
And then finally he put something out
after the bill last night.
I think that's a huge, huge indication as to how challenging
that vote he took as a freshman member of Congress is going to
be in the upcoming 2018 election cycle.
- Voters that follow this on both sides are very savvy.
This, to use a baseball analogy, this was a double by the House
of Representative to get the ball--to score a run, they gotta
get the bill through the Senate and also through conference and
ultimately to the president's desk.
- You're saying voters are savvy on the issues?
- I think they are. I think they understand.
Clearly Republican voters have been motivated by this issue
for six straight years, three election cycles.
Now potentially, Democratic voters
will be motivated by this.
And we don't know how that's going to play itself out yet.
- Do you feel like voters who might be recipients of some of
the current coverage understand what some of this means?
- I think they will if they lose their coverage or if for
instance they lose their pre-existing conditions or for
instance, the estimate by one esteemed economist says if you
had cancer and then you try and get insurance your premiums are
going to be $140,000 a year.
That is an obscenity.
And that is not coverage.
If you cannot afford coverage, you've lost your coverage.
And I'll agree with Bill.
You can defend action.
You cannot defend inaction but this piece of legislation is
going to trickle down into state races.
Governor Walker came out Friday and said he would be willing to
get a waiver to eliminate pre-existing conditions
protections here in the state of Wisconsin.
You've had Brad Schimel and John Nygren talking about opioid
coverage for the last year and a half.
And those things could be gone as a result of this.
- What about that point?
- This bill attempted to do three things: to lower premiums,
to lower deductibles and to provide states more flexibility.
The jury's out on the first two quite frankly
but it certainly would provide state's more flexibility
on what type of coverage.
The good news for Wisconsinites is we have some of the best
health care here in the country and we have the lowest uninsured
population in the country.
- Yeah, but we also --just remember this, here in the state
of Wisconsin we have people who have been denied access to care
because of the actions Governor Walker has taken related to
not taking the Medicaid money and things like that.
You just have to think when push comes to shove if seniors are
paying five times more for their coverage as a result of this,
that is going to a huge impact especially in a 2018 election
where it's an older population.
- It may well be tough.
Let me get both of you to respond to the transportation
plan that came out of the state legislature this week, Bill?
- Pretty creative.
Representative Dale Kooyenga from the Milwaukee area got the
support of his leadership and his caucus, the Republican
Assembly Caucus to do what we would call a big, bold plan.
It includes--they call it "The Road to the Flat Tax." It
includes a long-term comprehensive transportation
plan, which by the way would have the first increase in
revenues for transportation in the past decade.
But it also has some pretty significant tax reduction.
We'll see.
It's step one.
It's a good starting point but it's got a long way to go.
- "The Road to the Flax Tax" is going to roll right over the
middle class.
We're talking about double taxing your gasoline so that
they can cut the top 1% income tax rate in half.
So the richest man and woman in Wisconsin, John Menard and Diane
Hendricks are going to have their tax rates cut in half
essentially, the tax rate.
And you're going to pay twice on your gasoline to pay for that.
- We'll leave it there.
Scot Ross, Bill McCoshen.
Thank you.
- Thanks for having us.