Have We Missed The Point On Health Care?

WAMU 88.5

Published June 27, 2017 at 10:06 AM EDT

Capitol Police arrest a protestor against the Senate Republican's draft healthcare bill outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, in Washington on June 22.

Republican senators have a week left to wrangle votes for their latest bid to replace Obamacare. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed the Senate Republicans’ health care plan to the public just last Thursday. The bill includes some big cuts to Medicaid, as well as tax cuts for the wealthy and insurers.

So far, it’s earned criticism both from centrist Republicans who believe it goes too far… and from far-right conservatives who believe it doesn’t go far enough. Senate Republicans can only afford to lose two votes from their own party, but at least four Republican senators say they aren’t ready to commit.

So how do Republican leaders thread the needle before the whole Senate goes home for the July 4th recess? And why is the future of American health care so hard to agree on?

GUESTS

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Chair of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania; author of “Reinventing American Healthcare”

Katherine Baicker, Professor of health economics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; incoming dean of the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

James Capretta, Resident fellow and Milton Friedman chair, American Enterprise Institute; former associate director at the White House Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush

For more, visit http://the1a.org.