There will be 13 men and zero women writing the Senate Republican health-care bill

13 male senators will write the Senate GOP health-care bill
(Image credit: The Daily Show)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has chosen his team to write the Senate Republican version of the American Health Care Act, and senators will apparently scrap the House version and start over. "This process will not be quick or simple or easy," McConnell said Monday. But the group of 13 senators McConnell has tapped for the task — including himself and his top two deputies — has raised eyebrows because, among other things, it includes 13 men and no women.

Robert Pear at The New York Times suggests that McConnell, a shrewd tactician, chose to include only men, including far-right Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), "to placate the right." But his picks "may have inadvertently created a dangerous alliance," Pear adds, between Republicans who are more moderate on health care, especially Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who came up with the "Jimmy Kimmel Test" for health-care legislation. If they band together, they just need one more Republican to effectively veto any bill — and between Medicaid and pre-existing conditions, there are AHCA skeptics in the Senate GOP caucus.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.