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Speaker 1: Many say that the current Senate proceedings on healthcare legislation

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Speaker 1: are unprecedented and chaotic. Last night, Republicans approved a motion

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Speaker 1: to proceed to consider legislation on healthcare, but needed Vice

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Speaker 1: President Mike Penson's vote to do so. Then a modified

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Speaker 1: bill to repeal and replace Obamacare was defeated, with some

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Speaker 1: Republicans voting against it. At least several other bills and

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Speaker 1: many many potential amendments will be considered over the next

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Speaker 1: few days in the Senate, and not even Republicans seem

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Speaker 1: to know the details of what they will be voting on.

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Speaker 1: Here to help us try to make sense of what's

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Speaker 1: going on in the Senate is Brian Ry, the senior

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Speaker 1: health healthcare policy analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence who's joining us

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Speaker 1: from the Bloomberg studios in Washington, d C. Brian, let's

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Speaker 1: start by talking about where are we now? What is

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Speaker 1: god where? What's the status of things in the Senate

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Speaker 1: right now? Well, you actually did a very good job

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Speaker 1: explaining the process. That's the best I've heard of. What's

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Speaker 1: a very chaotic process so far. But where we are

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Speaker 1: right now is we're in the midst of a twenty

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Speaker 1: hour debate period, a series of votes have taken place.

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Speaker 1: As you mentioned last night, after the initial motion to

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Speaker 1: proceed UM carried with Vice President Pence making the tiebreaking vote. UH,

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Speaker 1: they didn't went through a procedural motion to vote on

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Speaker 1: UH sort of the the Amended Repeal and Replace Bill. Now,

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Speaker 1: that bill, several key provisions that have been recently introduced

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Speaker 1: have not been reviewed by the CBO or the Parliamentary

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Speaker 1: and so that would have required sixty votes to pass.

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Speaker 1: Didn't get that, and I think that was well known.

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Speaker 1: The next vote is going to be essentially a vote

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Speaker 1: on on a bill that UM is identical in most parts,

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Speaker 1: to build the House and Senate both passed two years ago.

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Speaker 1: That would essentially repeal UH key provisions of the Affordable

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Speaker 1: Care Act, the mandates, the taxes, the Medicaid expansion, but

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Speaker 1: not have a replacement component of that. UH. That's also

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Speaker 1: not probably probably going to it is probably going to fail.

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Speaker 1: I think several Republican Senators don't want to set rate

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Speaker 1: this process now. They want to have some sort of

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Speaker 1: repeal and replace UH combination there. And assuming that does happen,

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Speaker 1: then I think you'll see over the next hours or

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Speaker 1: so this sort of whittled down to a least common

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Speaker 1: denominator where we'll try and find, um, you know, what

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Speaker 1: types of the skinny repealed, if you will, what types

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Speaker 1: of provisions can they agree on to repeal at this

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Speaker 1: point and get fifty votes on and then try and

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Speaker 1: get that over to the House and have a Conference

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Speaker 1: committee over thecoming weeks or months to then revisit everything

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Speaker 1: those provisions that they were that they want to add.

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Speaker 1: Give the CBO in the Parliamentary and time to to

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Speaker 1: review those again. A very convoluted process. But the goal

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Speaker 1: right now if you're a Senate Republican leadership, is just

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Speaker 1: to continue to try and advance the process forward. Could

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Speaker 1: they be foiled in all these amendments by the rules

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Speaker 1: that are required in order to keep it to fifty

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Speaker 1: fifty votes only and not require sixty it is I

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Speaker 1: mean that that's a great point, and that's I think

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Speaker 1: one of the frustrations is and and and frankly, one

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Speaker 1: of the ironies is a lot of the things that

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Speaker 1: have been an intra party battle within the Republican Conference

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Speaker 1: on whether we should include this or whether we should

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Speaker 1: include that. It's not at all clear with where the

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Speaker 1: A lot of those issues could actually even be part

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Speaker 1: of a bill that that fits this UH Senate the

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Speaker 1: budget reconciliation process. So again, I think that's another reason

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Speaker 1: why you may wind up with a watered down UM

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Speaker 1: bill that only contains a few provisions which do qualify. Again,

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Speaker 1: if you repeal the individual mandate to buy insurance, if

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Speaker 1: you repeal the employer mandate to offer h A C

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Speaker 1: A compliant insurance, and then maybe one or more of

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Speaker 1: the A C A taxes, those are all very clearly

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Speaker 1: a budget related and would satisfy the parliamentarian. And again

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Speaker 1: then it would become a game, not again but an

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Speaker 1: effort if you could get into a conference with the houses,

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Speaker 1: can you craft legislation in such a way to accomplish

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Speaker 1: some of the things that you want to in terms

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Speaker 1: of a broader repeal and replace bill that does satisfy

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Speaker 1: that And you know, again that's that's a continuing challenge

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day. You know, if push

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Speaker 1: comes to shove, it's something that maybe the Parliamentarian could

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Speaker 1: be overruled by the Sentate, But I don't know that

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Speaker 1: they want to go down that path right now, Brian, Uh,

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Speaker 1: what are the Democrats doing to try to stop this

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Speaker 1: process from succeeding and getting something back to the House.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think at this point there they've they've

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Speaker 1: observed that the Senate has been very good at sort

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Speaker 1: of stumbling on their own the Republicans have, so I

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Speaker 1: don't know that they, um, you know, want to do

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Speaker 1: much at this point. Now, I think you will see

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Speaker 1: the Democrats introduce uh several amendments on their own over

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Speaker 1: the next couple of days at the very at least

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Speaker 1: maybe force Republicans to take some unpopular votes on things.

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Speaker 1: But again, I don't know that there's anything that they

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Speaker 1: can actively do UM to UH to stop the process.

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Speaker 1: But again, it's not entirely clear that Republicans are able

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Speaker 1: to advance the process on their own. That's again why

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Speaker 1: this may whittle down to at least combat de nominator,

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Speaker 1: you know, the type bill that I don't think anyone

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Speaker 1: would be satisfied with as a final law on the

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Speaker 1: Republican side, but would at least give them a chance

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Speaker 1: to move forward into a lift to fight another day

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Speaker 1: and move into a situation where they might be able

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Speaker 1: to hammer out a broader repealer in place bill with

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Speaker 1: the House. But the Democrats again you know, I think

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Speaker 1: they probably the best thing they could have done was

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Speaker 1: to regain control of the Senate back in two sixteen,

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Speaker 1: and they missed that chance. Well. Our thanks to Brian

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Speaker 1: Ry of Bloomberg Intelligence, senior healthcare policy analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence,

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Speaker 1: for being with us to talk about the unprecedented proceedings

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Speaker 1: on healthcare in the United States Senate