{"id":9928,"date":"2017-03-09T14:38:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T14:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/republican-backed-health-bill-clears-first-hurdle-in-house\/"},"modified":"2017-03-09T14:38:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T14:38:23","slug":"republican-backed-health-bill-clears-first-hurdle-in-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/republican-backed-health-bill-clears-first-hurdle-in-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican-backed health bill clears first hurdle in House"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"House Speaker Paul Ryan\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/FC3E\/production\/_95047546_ryan_976epa.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  Eureopan photopress agency<figcaption>Image caption                                      The bill was crafted by Republican leaders like Paul Ryan, and backed by Mr Trump                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">A key congressional committee has approved the Republican healthcare bill after debating for nearly 18 hours. <\/p>\n<p>The proposed legislation scored its first procedural victory, despite objections from Democrats, hospitals and even some Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>The bill would replace Barack Obama&#039;s signature law, so-called Obamacare. <\/p>\n<p>The other House of Representatives committee considering the plan, known as the American Health Care Act, is still debating the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;This is an historic step, an important step in the repeal of Obamacare,&quot; said Republican Representative Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, which voted 23-16 on the measure in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The committee made no changes to the draft legislation, despite Democratic attempts to introduce amendments.<\/p>\n<p>The chamber&#039;s Energy and Commerce committee was still working through its own marathon session as of Thursday morning. <\/p>\n<p>Congress is aiming to pass the bill, which was unveiled on Monday, within the next few weeks. <\/p>\n<p>The new plan would dismantle much of Mr Obama&#039;s 2010 Affordable Care Act. <\/p>\n<p>It would also:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>limit future federal funding for Medicaid, which covers low-income people<\/li>\n<li>abolish the requirement that everyone should be insured<\/li>\n<li>replace subsidies with tax credits<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The American Hospital Association (AHA), a leading trade group representing hospitals, said current provisions for &quot;our most vulnerable&quot; would be thrown into doubt.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump met lawmakers on Wednesday to rally them behind the bill, after a stormy 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Moderate Republicans are also concerned people will be stripped of cover, while conservatives sense federal overreach.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats continue to argue that it is impossible to push through a bill without knowing its cost and how many Americans would be affected - figures which have yet to be released. <\/p>\n<p>Overall, the plan is expected to cover fewer people than those who gained insurance under the Obama administration&#039;s Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n<p>However, the predicted numbers and cost will not be clear for about another week, when the Congressional Budget Office delivers its verdict on the proposed overhaul to the more than $3tn (\u00a32.4tn) US healthcare system.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Media captionWhat&#039;s in the Republican healthcare bill?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>What are the Republicans proposing?<\/li>\n<li>Is Obamacare more popular than ever? <\/li>\n<li>A bumpy 24 hours for Trump health bill<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The president of the AHA, which represents about 5,000 hospitals and health networks, said in a letter to Congress that the ability to assess the bill was &quot;severely hampered&quot; by the lack of a proper estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.<\/p>\n<p>But the plans for Medicaid &quot;will have the effect of making significant reductions in a programme that provides services to our most vulnerable populations&quot;, Rick Pollack wrote.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Twitter                                                    <\/figure>\n<p>In a separate letter, a large doctors&#039; group, the American Medical Association, also urged Congress to reconsider reducing insurance for the poor.<\/p>\n<p>The AARP, a lobbying group for older Americans, has opposed the plan too, saying funding for the Medicare insurance programme for the elderly could be cut.<\/p>\n<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the bill as &quot;a conservative wish list&quot; and &quot;monumental, exciting conservative reform.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;This is what we&#039;ve been dreaming about doing,&quot; he told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump campaigned on repealing Obamacare, which he says has suffered from rising premiums and a lack of choice.<\/p>\n<p>White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the president was &quot;in full sell mode&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>As well as convincing Americans, he has to first persuade sceptics in his own party.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress, but it is unclear if they will get enough votes to get the bill through.<\/p>\n<p>The bill will be &quot;dead on arrival&quot; at the doors of the Senate, said Kentucky senator Rand Paul.<\/p>\n<p><a rel='nofollow' href=http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-39221087 target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Eureopan photopress agencyImage caption The bill was crafted by Republican leaders like Paul Ryan, and backed by Mr Trump A key congressional committee has approved the Republican healthcare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}