House Republicans will finally vote on Thursday to pass their health care bill, the American Health Care Act.
How to watch the AHCA House vote: what to expect from the vote to replace Obamacare
Dylan Scott covers health for Vox, guiding readers through the emerging opportunities and challenges in improving our health. He has reported on health policy for more than 10 years, writing for Governing magazine, Talking Points Memo, and STAT before joining Vox in 2017.
Leadership announced the planned vote Wednesday evening. It is scheduled to happen Thursday from 1:15 to 1:45 p.m., and will be streaming live on HouseLive.gov.
Republicans have been laboring for months to deliver on their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Their previous bid failed in late March, once House leaders and the Trump White House realized they didn’t have enough to support to pass it.
After that embarrassment, House leaders have promised not to put the bill on the House floor unless they had the votes to pass it. While most public whip counts show a razor-thin margin, leadership is apparently confident they have the votes they need.
AHCA would significantly overhaul Obamacare, repealing some of its provisions and changing others, as my colleague Sarah Kliff explained in great detail.
The bill would cut spending for Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans that is the biggest insurer in the United States, by $800 billion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that earlier versions of the AHCA would lead to as many as 24 million more Americans being uninsured.
The most recent revisions to the bill have not been analyzed by CBO, so lawmakers will be voting on a bill without fully knowing what it would do or cost.
House leaders, some key members from the far-right and centrist wings of the House Republican caucus, and Trump officials have been scrambling to find the votes they need after their March failure. A provision that lets states opt out of some of Obamacare’s protections for people with high medical costs, with some requirements, won over much of the right flank. On Wednesday, moderate lawmakers put forward a proposal to provide more money to help people affected by those waivers afford their coverage.
The bill would head to an uncertain future in the Senate, where many Republicans have expressed concerns about its policies.
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