Republicans promise a score on Senate health care bill before voting; Democrats disagree

Sen. Roger Wicker said Tuesday that there will be a score on the Senate Republican health care plan before any voting takes place.

“There is going to be a full discussion, and there’s going to be a final score available to the American people before we ask the final version to be voted on,” Mr. Wicker said on MSNBC.

The Mississippi Republican also said Democrats refused to participate in the discussions on health care so Republicans have had the discussions in closed-door meetings.

“[Senate Majority Leader Chuck E. Schumer] said we will have no part of these discussions,” Mr. Wicker explained. “I think you will find that when delicate negotiations are going on, whether it’s been done on the Democratic side or the Republican side, details have to be ironed out.”

But Sen. Dick Durbin pushed back on that, saying that Republicans are going to “steamroll” the bill through without Democrats’ input anyway.

“No one on the Democratic side knows anything about the substance of this bill. All we know is that it’s being pushed through without a hearing, without even being read, without being scored, and at the last minute it’s a take it or leave it on a process called reconciliation,” Mr. Durbin said on MSNBC.

The Illinois Democrat added, “Three Republican senators can stop what looks like an effort to push through and steamroll a bill.”

Mr. Wicker also explained that the Senate bill will differ from the House bill, especially regarding Medicaid.

“The Senate is considering making 50 experiments in Medicaid. So Medicaid works while also preserving a system that was meant to protect poor children and disabled people. So we want to move away from the all encompassing single-payer aspect and try 50 experiments to make Medicaid better,” he said.