Quick Quiz: What’s the difference between the forthcoming Republican health-care bill and the Democratic bill? Well, about 1,7000 pages. The Republican bill, which will be revealed momentarily, reportedly comes in at around 230 pages. That means even the slowest reader on the Hill can read the bill! But it apparently is far more modest in other ways, too. Politico reports:
The Republicans’ health care bill in the House focuses more on lowering costs than on expanding coverage, party leaders said Monday — setting up a stark divide between the GOP and Democrats who have made near universal coverage a top priority of their bills.
“Our substitute aims at driving down costs,” House Minority Leader John Boehner told reporters Monday. “If you drive down costs, you can expand access.”
Boehner hasn’t released the full details of the bill but has said that it would make it easier to buy insurance across state lines, impose strict limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and allow individuals and small businesses to pool their resources to buy insurance as a group. That is designed to boost their purchasing power to help lower individual premiums.