House Committees advance Republican healthcare bill after pulling all-nighters

After marathon sessions two House committees approved to move the new American Health Care Act to the House Budget Committee.

After 37 hours of continuous debate, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 31-23 to approve the new GOP plan without amendment. Democrats offered several amendments that were voted down.

Texas Republican Joe Barton offered two amendments that he later withdrew. One was to roll back Medicaid expansion to the end of 2017, rather than the bill's 2020.

Barton said by statement after the vote that he and Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Richard Hudson of North Carolina offered the amendments. 

"Our amendments would move up the freeze date for new enrollment in the Medicaid expansion at the enhanced match under Obamacare to January 1, 2018," Barton said. "Additionally, the end date for enrollees to phase out of the expanded program would be established as January 1, 2023. States would still receive Medicaid benefits from the federal government at the rates established before Obamacare. These amendments would result in billions of dollars of savings due to the shortened timetable for ending Obamacare Medicaid expansion funding. They will remain under consideration as we continue to work through the legislative process."

During the House and Energy Committee markup, House Speaker Paul Ryan held a Ted talk-style PowerPoint press conference on the bill.

The House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee voted 23 to 16 along party lines in a hearing that went until 4 a.m. and saw numerous Democratic amendments fail.

Their markup debate centered on a portion of the bill in what Democrats called a $400 million corporate tax break to insurance CEOs and other top executives.

The provision would raise the cap on the annual corporate income tax deduction for CEO and other top executive health insurance compensation from $500,000 to $1 million.

The estimated loss of revenue over the next 10 years under the new provision is $400 million, according to Thomas Barthold, Joint Committee on Taxation chief of staff. The net cost of the repeal of the income tax cap is $157.6 billion from 2018 to 2026, Barthold said.

[Also: Democrats shun $400 million insurance CEO tax break in heated Ways and Means session]

Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas asked for a postponement of a vote until March 16 to give the Congressional Budget Office time to score the cost of the plan. A motion to table Doggett's request passed in a 23-16 vote along party lines.

The CBO is expected to release its figures next week.

The GOP plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act faces opposition from Democrats and from some conservative members of the Republican party.

On Wednesday, Democratic amendments brought forward in the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee all failed by vote or were deemed not germane to the issue.

[Also: Hospital groups come out against Republican healthcare bill, blast Medicaid plans]

These included, according to the Ways and Means Democrats, amendments to protect Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans and a requirement that any taxpayer benefiting from the net investment income tax cut for high-income earners have a clean drug test annually. This corresponded to a Republican plan to allow states to require drug testing for Americans to receive unemployment benefits. 

Also, Ways and Means Republicans blocked votes on amendments that would repeal the Cadillac tax, ensure the bill does not result in rural hospital closures or job losses at these hospitals, prevent middle class tax increases and require no increase in taxes on families earning less than $250,000 per year, require no loss of coverage or an increase in the number of uninsured individuals, enable states to opt out of the healthcare bill and keep their options provided under the ACA, require no increase in out-of-pocket costs or reduced availability of coverage or benefits for individuals over 55 years old, require no increase uncompensated care or a loss of jobs at local hospitals, require the bill to be fully paid for and not increase the number of uninsured Americans and request President Donald Trump's tax returns from the Treasury Department.

Twitter: @SusanJMorse