Senate Takes A Swing At Health Care

What’s really on the table for American health care with the new senate bill – the winners, the losers, the hard facts.

American health care, on the line this week. Who gets what, for how much money. Who gets helped, seen, cared for. Who doesn’t. And who pays, or gets a tax windfall. Senate Republicans drafted their plan in secret. Now they’ve rolled it out hard and fast. Mitch McConnell wants it done, passed, this week. Democrats are shouting it’s a calamity. Republicans aren’t sure they’ve got the votes. We’ll all live – or die – with it. This hour On Point: the Senate bill, and what’s in there. -- Tom Ashbrook

Noam Levey, national health care reporter for the Los Angeles Times. (@NoamLevey)

Stuart Altman, professor of national health policy at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University.

Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. (@Avik)

Rebecca Givan, author of, "The Challenge to Change: Reforming Health Care on the Front Line in the United States and the United Kingdom" Associate professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. (@rkgwork)

CNN: Who gets hurt and who gets helped by the Senate health care bill — "The Senate unveiled its legislation to dismantle the health reform law on Thursday. While it's likely to change before lawmakers vote on it — possibly late next week — it's already clear who will benefit and who will lose under the Senate plan. Though senators promised to write their own repeal bill, their proposals largely mirror the House legislation. Both would radically overhaul Medicaid, effectively ending Medicaid expansion and greatly reducing federal support for the overall program. Both would get rid of the individual and employer mandates, as well as eliminate taxes on the wealthy, insurers and others."

POLITICO: The Senate GOP's backdoor Obamacare rollback — "Buried deep in the 142 pages of the Senate’s new health care bill is an immense reform that could pave the way for a new rollback of parts of the Affordable Care Act—one that takes place state by state, rather than in Washington. Although the bill preserves most of the consumer protections written into the 2010 law, it also contains a provision that allows states effectively to waive many of them, and gives them a financial incentive to do so."

New York Times: Where Senators Stand on the Health Care Bill — "Senate Republican leaders unveiled their bill on Thursday to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It needs at least 50 votes to pass (Vice President Mike Pence could cast a tie-breaking vote). Every Democrat is expected to oppose the bill, which means three Republican “no” votes would block it. Here is where every senator stands so far."