美国国会众议院的共和党议员表示将继续努力全面改革医保体系。共和党废除和取代前总统奥巴马任内推出的平价医保的努力上星期出人意料地失败。
由于通过共和党议案的支持票数明显不够,众议院领袖决定不对议案投票。一些反对共和党议案的议员担心,会有大批人失去医疗保险。另外一些批评者则认为,此议案对奥巴马医保的改革力度不够大。
众议院议长瑞安与共和党议员开会之后星期二说,他们愿意共同努力,共同聆听。他说:“这个议题太重要了。奥巴马医保对家庭造成太大的损害。我们会把议案改得更到位。与此同时,我们还要着手进行我们作为议员的所有其它工作。”
众议院多数党领袖麦卡锡也持乐观态度。他说,共和党议员将履行承诺,废除和取代奥巴马医保。麦卡锡说:“会议之后,我更加乐观。我们将实现目标。”
川普总统对星期五的挫折做出的第一反应是,他准备开展税务改革等其它重要的工作,但他同时继续批评奥巴马医保。他星期二说,肯定会有改革。
川普总统在白宫一个既有民主党参议员也有共和党参议员参加的招待会上说:“我知道我们大家会就医保达成协议。这非常容易。因此,我丝毫不怀疑,这将很快发生。”
川普总统和众议院领袖都没有说什么时候新的医保改革法案出台。虽然他们都做出乐观的讲话,但是也有不少与之不同的迹象显示,共和党议员还不确定医保改革和其它议题相比是否应该更优先。
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are signaling a commitment to continue trying to overhaul the nation’s health care system, after their push to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature program failed in dramatic fashion last week.
House leaders opted not to hold a vote on the Republican health care bill when it became clear it did not have enough support to pass. Some opponents feared the measure would force too many people to lose health coverage, while others said it did not go far enough in reforming Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday after a meeting with Republican lawmakers that members are ready to “work together and listen together.” “It is just too important,” he said. “Obamacare is doing too much damage to families. And so we’re going to get this right, and in the meantime, we’re going to do all of our other work that we came here to do.”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was also optimistic, saying Republicans will follow through on their promise to repeal and replace the ACA. “Coming out of that conference I have more confidence that we will get it done,” McCarthy said.
President Donald Trump initially reacted to Friday’s failure by saying he was ready to move on to other priorities such as tax reform. But he has continued to criticize the current system and on Tuesday said he was sure there will be reforms.
“I know that we’re all going to make a deal on health care. That’s such an easy one. So I have no doubt that that’s going to happen very quickly,” he said at a White House reception with a group of both Democratic and Republican senators.
Neither Trump nor the House leaders gave an indication about when a new health care bill would be ready for action. And along with their positive statements Tuesday there were still mixed signals about how much of a priority health care is to Republicans right now.