Woodruff all that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by xq institute. Bnsf railway. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the battle over Affordable Care act, or obamacare is now joined, in earnest. House republicans pressed forward today, in the face of resistance from democrats, and from inside their own party. Lisa desjardins reports from capitol hill. Reporter it was day one of republicans push to sell their longawaited replacement plan for the Affordable Care act, obamacare. Greg walden chairs the energy and Commerce Committee and helped author the bill. Introduction of this bill is just the first step in helping American Families across the country obtain Truly Affordable Health Care and were eager to get started. Reporter named the American Health care act, republicans are keeping some and changing some of the Affordable Care act. The first big change medicaid. Obamacare expanded medicaid to include roughly 12 million more people lowerincome adults. Republicans would end that expansion in 2020, but allow those enrolled at that time to stay on medicaid. For the rest of medicaid some 55 Million People there is potentially sweeping change. Republicans would move from paying for all Health Care Costs now to setting a limit on spending per person. Democrats like kentucky congressman john yarmuth are outraged, saying that will cut benefits to millions. Over the longterm, what its going to mean is, the people who need the care the most, people who are working hard and need the coverage, will get less of it, and the states will have to shoulder more of the burden. Reporter but Republican Leaders mounted an allout offensive, with Vice President mike pence visiting senators at the capitol, and President Trump meeting with house leaders at the white house. I think, really, were going to have something thats much more understood and much more popular than people can even imagine. Reporter the largest issue for the republican bill is what we dont know. We dont yet know if this bill will mean fewer people with Health Insurance, and we also dont know what anything will cost including the size of possible medicaid cuts or new tax credits. Those tax credits are another big issue and change. The Affordable Care act gives direct tax subsidies for lowand middleincome americans; republicans would instead give refundable tax credits and rework who gets them. Individuals making under 75,000 would get a full credit based on age 2,000 dollars for the youngest, increasing by age to 4,000 dollars for those over 60. But those tax credits are raising concern from the right. Republican congressman dave brat says the credits are more massive government spending. Where is it coming from . Its coming from the federal government. And its a new entitlement program. And so, for the folks out there they may not know go google it we have a 100 trillion entitlement problem. Reporter hes not alone. Republican congressman justin amash called the bill obamacare 2. 0, in a tweet. And kentucky senator rand paul and other republicans held a News Conference to push back. We are united on repeal. But we are divided on replacement. Reporter that could be a serious issue in the senate where the g. O. P. Can afford to lose only two votes and still pass their bill without help from democrats. But, as some raised doubts, others in the party moved to aswer them, like health and Human Services secretary tom price. This is all about patients, and in order to provide that transition and in order to make it so that nobody falls through the cracks, weve got to have a system that allows for individuals to gain the kind of coverage that they want. Reporter and House Speaker paul ryan predicted the bill will have enough votes to pass. We will have 218 when this comes to the floor, i can guarantee that. Reporter tomorrow day two may be more important, as the bill heads to possible committee votes. For the pbs newshour, im Lisa Desjardins at the capitol. Woodruff in the days other news the nominee for the number two position at the Justice Department faced close questioning about investigating russian meddling in the 2016 election. Rod rosenstein would oversee the probe if he is confirmed. That is because attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself last week. At his Senate Confirmation hearing, rosenstein fended off democrats urging that he recuse himself, too, and appoint a special prosecutor. I know this is the issue du jour on capitol hill. But i anticipate that if i were the Deputy Attorney general, wed have a lot of matters coming before the department over time, and i would approach them all the same way. I would evaluate the facts and the law, consider the applicable regulations, consult with career professionals in the department, and then exercise my best judgment. Woodruff at least one democrat, connecticuts richard blumenthal, said that he will try to block the rosenstein nomination, unless he does commit to a special prosecutor. President trumps pick to be the a new round of threats hit Jewish Community centers and the Antidefamation League today. Some involved phonedin claims of bombs. At least one warned of a sniper. The threats came in at least eight cities the latest in a wave of such incidents. In response, all 100 members of the u. S. Senate wrote to leaders of the f. B. I. And the departments of justice and homeland security. They said failure to address these and deter these threats will place innocent people at risk. A federal judge has refused to stop completion of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, as American Indian tribes wanted. Todays ruling coincided with the start of a fourday protest on the national mall. It will culminate in a march on the white house. The court fight will continue, but the pipeline builders say oil could begin flowing next week. Emergency crews struggled today to contain fastmoving wildfires that have killed six people in four states. The fires are sweeping across hundreds of square miles in kansas, oklahoma, texas and colorado. Theyve already forced more than 10,000 people to flee. Elsewhere, hundreds of homes were damaged overnight by severe storms across the midwest. More than 30 twisters were reported in kansas, missouri, iowa and illinois. Were very lucky. Small children and two adults. They were scared, everybody was scared, but we stuck together and we made it through it. Woodruff this afternoon, the governor of missouri declared a state of emergency in the wake of the storms. U. S. Backed forces scored gains against Islamic State fighters on two fronts today. In syria, militia groups cut a main road out of raqqa, the defacto isis capital, and in iraq, army units pushed deeper into western mosul after a latenight commando raid. The troops battled into a complex of government buildings. That sets up an assault on mosuls old city, where militants are dug in with thousands of civilians. The European Unions top court ruled today that Member States do not have to grant humanitarian visas to asylum seekers. Belgium and other countries had warned it would mean another flood of migrants. Meanwhile, hungarys parliament voted to confine migrants at border camps built from shipping containers, pending action on their asylum requests. A Chinese Telecom firm has agreed to pay nearly 900 million, for violating u. S. Sanctions. The Justice Department says z. T. E. Corporation illegally shipped americanmade equipment to iran and north korea. On wall street, stocks slipped for the third time in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 29 points to close at 20,924. The nasdaq fell 15 points, and the s p 500 gave up nearly seven. And, the white house is receiving visitors again. Tours resumed today for the First Time Since the inauguration, and the first group got a president ial welcome. Mr. Trump greeted a crowd that included alabama fifth graders on a school trip. Prominent in the background, a portrait of former first lady hillary clinton, his election rival. Woodruff still to come on the newshour a republican senator weighs in on the ongoing russia investigation; wikileaks documents show c. I. A. Efforts to hack into phones, tvs and cars; the militarys model prek program, and much more. Woodruff now, lets go back to the big debate emerging over the healthcare law, and explore some of the key ideas behind the republicans plans. The house bill does keep some of the most popular provisions of the law, like preventing insurers from denying coverage for preexisting conditions; it still has penalties for a lapse in coverage; but, it does not mandate coverage in the same way. It also shifts how the government would provide financial help, while eventually reducing the number of people on medicaid. John yang picks it up from there. Yang to help break down the impact of these proposed changes, im joined by two experts who watch healthcare closely. Lanhee chen is a fellow at the Hoover Institution who advised mitt romney and marco rubio in their president ial campaigns; and Sabrina Corlette is a professor at georgetown universitys Health Policy institute. Thank you for joining us to you both. Welcome to you both. I think you can both agree as this moves through the legislative process, the details will change, but i think the philosophical changes in direction are clear now. Lanhee chen, let me start with you. This shifts what were seeing proposed is to shift from requiring that everyone have insurance to have a series of carrots, really, to get people to buy insurance themselveses will on the open market. Why is that the better approach . Well, one of the issues, frankly, with the Affordable Care act is that you had situation wheres insurance was become unaffordable. In fact, if you look at 2015, as an example, 19. 2 million americans either could not afford Health Insurance because they got what was known as a hardship exemption, or they paid the penalty relating to obamacares individual mandate. So one of the things that this tries to do is to encourage the purchase of insurance. But as you say, to do it as an encouragement, rather than as a penalty. Where a penalty does apply is when an individual does not make the decision to acquire coverage and that coverage lapses and they would be subject to a penalty to get back into the system. But the approach, as you know, is fundamentally different. Lanhee, how does this move premiums down . Well, i think theres a couple of things. First of all, the idea is to create marketplaces that are healthier by providing more competition and a greater choice of plans. Now, obviously, this provision alone doesnt do that, but the idea behind the republican approach is to move in that direction. Now, some of that lowering of cost is constrained in this piece of legislation because it has to comply with this budgetary auditing, nope as reconciliation. But overall, the republican strategy is to lower cost by expanding choice and reducing the number of mandates on plans. Sabrina corlette, is that effective . Is that going to work . Well, heres one of those things where details really do matter. And in fact, i would argue that this requirement they have in there that is an attempt to replace the a. C. A. s individual mandate will actually drive premiums up, because i think more young people will look at that and say, im not going to face a penalty if i dont sign up for coverage, so im going to hold off on buying insurance. So the only people buying insurance will be those who are sick. And if insurers have to cover just sick people they will raise premiums and those will go up. Lanhee chen, that gets to a point many critics are saying, the federal help to buy for these insurance premiums favors, they say, the young and the healthy over the sick and the old. What do you say to that . I have a tough time with that argument, john, frankly. Because, first of all, the tax credits in the republican plan are based, first of all, on age. That is the primary factor which theyre differentiated. Therefore, those who are older will get more assistance than those who are younger. Furthermore, the broader idea here is to lower cost of plans to get more people in. It is the case in the previous regime, under obamacare, that you did have fewer people in the millennium, because premiums were inasing from 2015 to 20 taken scaeb by 25 . The goal is lowering the cost of plans so the help will provide more coverage. That is the idea behind the republican proposal. Sabrina corlette, hes correct that the tax breaks go up with age, but, also, it allows the Insurance Companies to charge much higher premiums for older insured people. Right, right. So this bill would allow Insurance Companies to charge older people up to five times the amountave younger person, but the tax credits only go up two times. So youre essentially handing an older person a twofoot rope to get themselves out of a 10foot hole. The other thing is that overall, the tax subsidies are much less generous than they are under the Affordable Care act. And theyre not so lower income people get less, relative to their intng, and many of them will not be able to afford this coverage. We dont have numbers yet from the Congressional Budget Office about how many people will end up losing coverage. But we do have numbers that from wall street analysts that estimate up to 10 Million People will lose coverage under this bill . Lanhee chen, how do you respond to that, about the number of people who will go uncovered by this . I think there are a couple of things. Well have to wait and see what the Congressional Budget Office ends up deciding on this. But it is the case, first of all, that the republican philosophy, the conservative philosophy has always been you expand access by lowering costs. So it is the case that if you are able to get some of these regulation out of the way granted, the house bill doesnt actually do a lot of that because it has to comply with these arcane budgetary rules. But would there be legislation in phase two as donald trump said of Health Reform that got these regulations out of the way, the idea would be to lower the cost of plans, expand access, and affect the number of uninsured. Another thing they could do briefly is they could look at trying to create a steeper means test on the tax credits such that poorer people would benefit more than they do under the current proposal. Lanhee chen what, do you say to the conservatives who worry that these tax credits are essentially a new entitlement . Well, id make a couple of arguments. First of all, we already have a tax code that subsidizes health care, largely through the purchase of Health Insurance through your employer. 160 million americans take advantage of this tax break already. What republicans are trying to do with this proposal is to equalize, to a certain degree, the treatment of Health Insurance purchased individually versus through employers. And i would also say its just a reality that weve got to deal with questions of coverage. And if you dont help people who are outside the of the employer marketplace, are you going to see even more significant degradations in coverage so this is an important step forward this that regard. Finally, Sabrina Corlette, whats your view on the changes that are coming in medicaid, or would be coming in medicaid if this plan is passed . This is one thing i think is really important for people ton, that this bill goes way beyond repealing the a. C. A. sa. s medid expansion. This really is a radical restructuring of a program thats been around for 50 years. Its a financial lifeline not just for lowincome families, but families who have qidz disabilities, older people who need longterm care. Close to 50 of births in this country are funded by the medicaid program. So we are looking at potentially cutting this program that will affect far beyond the people that got coverage through the a. C. A. Sabrina corlette, lanhee chen, thank you very much. Thank you. Woodruff today, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announced that their first public hearing on the investigation into russian interference in the election would begin on march 20. At the same time, democrats in the senate are calling for a special counsel to investigate. Weve heard recently from democrats on the senate Intelligence Committee, and tonight, we turn to a republican senator James Lankford of oklahoma. Senator lankford, thank you very much for being with us. The House Committee has announced when its hearing beginnings. What about the senate, will it go first