Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on June 26 rejected a key Medicaid reform provision from the GOP megabill, marking a major setback for Republicans hoping to find billions in savings from the program.
The Senate referee struck out a GOP plan to reduce federal Medicaid costs by capping states’ use of a health care provider tax. The proposal was expected to generate hundreds of billions in savings to offset the cost of making business tax cuts permanent, another part of the megabill.
The ruling throws a spanner in the works for Senate Republican leadership, who may now have to rewrite key parts of the bill as they race to pass the package in the coming days. President Donald Trump and Republican leaders have insisted that Congress pass the mammoth bill by July 4….