Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTrump tells McConnell to let Senate vote on criminal justice reform The Hill's Morning Report — Presented by T-Mobile — The political currents that will drive the shutdown showdown Senate edges closer to rebuking Trump on Saudi Arabia MORE (R-Ky.) is ramping up pressure on Senate Republicans to allow healthcare reform legislation to move forward, but old antagonist Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzStrategist behind Warren's political rise to meet with O'Rourke: report Trump tells McConnell to let Senate vote on criminal justice reform Sanders to Colbert: 'You will be my vice presidential candidate!' MORE (R-Texas) is an obstacle. 
 
 McConnell on Wednesday urged colleagues to drop procedural objections to the bill, a sign that his patience is wearing thin — and that he is uncertain he can win the day. 
 
 “If we sit on our hands, families will continue to suffer. And if we let this opportunity to move beyond ObamaCare pass us by, what other options will there be?” he said in remarks from the Senate floor. 
 
 McConnell argued that if senators blocked the bill, there would be no opportunity to debate their ideas in public. 
 
 Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn John CornynSenate edges closer to rebuking Trump on Saudi Arabia Texas lawmakers introduce legislation aimed at helping border counties identify missing migrants US markets plunge after arrest of Chinese tech executive MORE (R-Texas) said his colleagues have an obligation to allow the debate to proceed and would break Senate traditions by blocking it. 
 
 “The only time I’m aware of around here that people don’t vote yes on a motion to proceed is if they don’t have an opportunity to offer amendments and get votes on them,” he said. 
 
 Their pleas, however, failed to move some members of the GOP conference. 
 
 Cruz, the runner-up in last year’s Republican presidential primary, declined to say Wednesday whether he would vote to allow the healthcare debate to begin next week. 
 
 “Depends what’s in the bill,” Cruz told reporters before heading into a lunch where lawmakers discussed the outline of the legislation. 
 
 Cruz and fellow conservative Sen. Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeeSenate edges closer to rebuking Trump on Saudi Arabia Overnight Defense: GOP senators rip Saudi prince after CIA briefing | Top general says Afghan war at a stalemate | Mattis extends border mission through January | Pompeo gives Russia deadline on nuclear arms treaty Trump-GOP rift grows over Saudis MORE (R-Utah) are insisting on an amendment that would allow insurance companies to sell any kind of health plan they want as long as they offer at least one that complies with federal regulations. 
 
 Cruz was summoned to Cornyn’s office late Wednesday afternoon but a spokesman for Cornyn said it was to discuss judicial vacancies, not Cruz's concerns with the legislation. 
 
 Critics say the Cruz-Lee amendment would lead healthier people to flock to cheap, bare-bones plans, sending premiums for older and sicker people soaring. 
 
 In a document circulated on Capitol Hill, the main insurer trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, warned the Cruz-Lee amendment could lead to higher costs for those with pre-existing conditions. 
 
 Such individuals could “potentially lose access to comprehensive coverage and/or have plans that were far more expensive, as premiums in the Exchange market would rise much faster,” it said. 
 
 McConnell can afford only two defections if he is to still pass the bill, as Republicans control 52 seats. Vice President Pence would break a 50-50 tie. 
 
 Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulMeadows says 'too early to tell' if special House election should be held in North Carolina Kobach ‘very concerned’ voter fraud may have happened in North Carolina Sen. Paul must release his hold on Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act MORE (R-Ky.) is expected to oppose the bill, and many observers also believe it will be impossible to win support from Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsSenators want assurances from attorney general pick on fate of Mueller probe 5 themes to watch for in 2020 fight for House Judd Gregg: The last woman standing MORE (R-Maine). 
 
 Despite the tough odds, one GOP lawmaker who attended Wednesday’s lunch said there’s generally a “more positive feeling” that the motion to proceed to the bill will pass next week but conceded “no one stood up and said they changed their minds” to express support for the bill. 
 
 But several Republican senators left the lunch voicing frustration with McConnell’s strategy of keeping the details of the bill secret until the last minute in order to keep critics from picking it apart. 
 
 “People have asked, ‘Has [the bill] addressed concerns that you have in Alaska?’ I have no idea, so I’m not going to make any commitment to anybody that I’m going to vote for a motion to proceed,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiSenate advances Trump energy pick after Manchin flips The Senate must reject Bernard McNamee’s nomination for FERC Overnight Defense: Congress pauses to mourn George H.W. Bush | Haspel to brief senators on Khashoggi killing | Soldier is fourth to die from Afghan IED blast MORE (R-Alaska), who remains undecided. 
 
 In a bid to entice moderates, Cornyn promised “a substantial” increase to a $62 billion state fund designed to help low-income people with high healthcare costs afford insurance. 
 
 McConnell has scheduled a special meeting of the conference at 11:30 a.m. Thursday to discuss the detailed contents of the legislation. GOP leaders say the bill will be posted publicly sometime Thursday morning. 
 
 McConnell used this same playbook when he rolled out the first version of the Senate bill repealing and replacing major parts of ObamaCare on June 22. 
 
 But even when he unveiled the legislation in a morning meeting late last month, the discussion was limited to the bill’s broad goals and lawmakers were not given paper with detailed language. 
 
 GOP lawmakers said the leadership’s tactic of limiting information was designed to keep complaints and objections to a minimum. 
 
 Republican senators and senior aides have differing opinions on how much support there is for the Cruz-Lee proposal, but they agree it cannot pass as drafted. One GOP lawmaker predicted it would get 47 votes. A senior aide familiar with negotiations last week said it would only get 15. 
 
 Cornyn said no final decision has been made on the Cruz-Lee provision. 
 
 “The base bill will be released tomorrow morning. There’s going to be a lot of information released but I can’t speak to the exact format,” Cornyn said. 
 
 Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) are negotiating with Cruz and Lee to modify their amendment so that it could gather at least 50 votes on the floor. 
 
 Rounds, a former insurance executive, has proposed setting a ratio for how much insurers could charge people for plans meeting federal requirements versus the lower charge for cheaper, simpler plans. 
 
 He said that Cassidy has been in touch with Cruz on a “slightly different approach, but a similar concept.” 
 
 A spokesman for Cassidy did not comment. 
 
 Cruz declined to say late Wednesday whether he would accept their suggested modifications. 
 
 “We continue to have productive conversations,” he said. 
 
 Correction: 
 
 This report was updated on July 13 at 7:10 a.m. after a spokesman for Cornyn said the senator met with Cruz on Wednesday to discuss judicial vacancies. ||||| Vice President Mike Pence arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 13, 2017, to meet with lawmakers on the Republican health care bill which is under attack from within the party. (AP Photo/J.... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell released his new but still-reeling health care bill Thursday, bidding for conservative support by letting insurers sell low-cost, skimpy policies and reaching for moderates with added billions to combat opioid abuse and help states rein in consumers' skyrocketing insurance costs. 
 
 However, allowing insurers to offer bare-bones plans threatens to alienate moderates and perhaps other conservatives. And the measure retains cuts in Medicaid — the health insurance plan for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients — that moderate Republican senators have fought. 
 
 The legislation, the Senate GOP's plan for rolling back much of President Barack Obama's health care law, faces a do-or-die vote next week on which McConnell has no margin for error. Since Democrats uniformly oppose the effort, McConnell needs the votes of 50 of the 52 GOP senators to prevail, and two seem certain to vote "no" — conservative Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and moderate Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. 
 
 Conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has demanded language letting insurers sell plans with minimal coverage, as long as they also sell policies that meet strict coverage requirements set by Obama's 2010 statute. Moderate Republicans have objected that the idea would make policies excessively costly for people with serious illnesses because healthy people would flock to the cheaper coverage. 
 
 Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who'd partnered with Cruz, tweeted that the version they crafted wasn't put in the bill, adding, "Something based on it has, but I have not seen it or agreed to it." 
 
 Adding to the uncertainty, the Cruz provision appeared in the legislative text in brackets, meaning specific language was still being composed. That could give McConnell, Cruz and other conservatives time to work out a provision with broader support. 
 
 The retooled measure retains McConnell's plan to phase out the extra money 31 states have used to expand Medicaid under Obama's statute, and to tightly limit the overall program's future growth. Since its creation in 1965, the program has provided open-ended federal funds to help states pay the program's costs. 
 
 The rewritten package would add $70 billion to the $112 billion McConnell originally sought that states could use to help insurers curb the growth of premiums and consumers' other out-of-pocket costs. 
 
 It has an added $45 billion for states to combat the misuse of drugs like opioids. That's a boost over the $2 billion in the initial bill and an addition demanded by ok 
 
 Republicans from states in the Midwest and Northeast that have been ravaged by the drugs. 
 
 To help pay for the added spending, the measure would retain three tax increases Obama's law slapped on higher- earning people to help finance his law's expansion of coverage. Under the current statute, families earning more than $250,000 annually got a 3.8 percent boost on their investment income tax and a 0.9 percent increase in their payroll tax. Obama also imposed a new tax on the salaries of high-paid insurance executives. 
 
 The revised bill would also allow people to use money from tax-favored health savings accounts to pay health insurance premiums, another favorite proposal of conservatives. 
 
 McConnell's new bill offered only modest departures from the original version, which he yanked off the Senate floor two weeks ago to avoid certain defeat at the hands of a broad range of unhappy Republicans. 
 
 The reworked measure's key elements remain. It would ease Obama's requirements that insurers cover specified services like hospital care, erase Obama's penalties on people who don't buy coverage and make federal health care subsidies be less generous. 
 
 In an interview Wednesday with the Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club," President Donald Trump said he will be "very angry" if the Senate fails to pass the health care measure and said McConnell must "pull it off." 
 
 Paul told reporters the revised measure has nothing "remotely resembling repeal." 
 
 Collins has long complained the measure will toss millions off coverage. Spokeswoman Annie Clarke said Collins would vote "no" next week "if the Medicaid cuts remain the same" as those that have been discussed. 
 
 Besides Paul and Collins, other Republican senators have also been noncommittal on whether they will back McConnell's bill next week, including Tim Scott of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio. 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP reporters Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
– President Trump has warned senators that he will be "very angry" if they fail to repeal ObamaCare as promised. In an interview with televangelist Pat Robertson, the president said "a lot of people will be very upset" if Senate Republicans don't pass the legislation this summer, Politico reports. "I am sitting in the Oval Office with a pen in hand, waiting for our senators to give it to me," Trump said. "It has to get passed. They have to do it. They have to get together and get it done." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is expected to present a revised version of the bill to senators Thursday morning, "has to pull it off," Trump said. "He's working very hard. He's got to pull it off." McConnell urged senators Wednesday to drop procedural objections to the bill and let a vote move forward, saying, "If we sit on our hands, families will continue to suffer," the Hill reports. McConnell can only afford to lose two Republican votes, and Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday that he can't support the revised bill because it is "the same as the old bill, except it leaves in place more taxes," the Washington Post reports. McConnell also faces opposition from moderate senators and conservatives including Sen. Ted Cruz, who's pushing for an amendment that would allow insurance companies to sell plans that don't meet federal coverage requirements. (McConnell has cut the Senate recess by two weeks.)