This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/17/republican-health-bill-senators-oppose-vote
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Two more Republican senators oppose health bill, killing measure for now | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act met a new roadblock Monday night as two more Republican senators came out against the current Senate bill, stopping the bill from advancing to a vote. | |
| Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas came out in opposition to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the Senate version of the controversial healthcare reform bill which passed the House in May. | Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas came out in opposition to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the Senate version of the controversial healthcare reform bill which passed the House in May. |
| Senate Republicans hold a bare 52-48 majority in the Senate and two members of the GOP caucus, the moderate Susan Collins of Maine and the libertarian Rand Paul of Kentucky, already opposed the bill, along with all 48 Democrats. The announcement from Moran and Lee makes it impossible for Republicans to muster the 50 votes needed to bring the bill to the floor. | |
| The announcement came as Donald Trump was having dinner at the White House with a number of senators who support the bill. Trump talked to several conservatives on the phone over the weekend, including Lee, in an attempt to win their support. | The announcement came as Donald Trump was having dinner at the White House with a number of senators who support the bill. Trump talked to several conservatives on the phone over the weekend, including Lee, in an attempt to win their support. |
| Lee and Moran’s joint action does not necessarily doom efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. In a tweet, Lee noted that he could not support “this version” of the bill. Moran used the same language on Twitter. | |
| In an op-ed in The Resurgent, a conservative online publication, Lee cited the fact that the current bill didn’t incorporate an amendment that he introduced with Ted Cruz to allow insurance companies to offer bare-bones insurance plans. In Lee’s argument, the mandate that insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions resulted in “a hidden tax” which meant that “middle-class families are being forced to pay billions in higher health insurance premiums to help those with pre-existing conditions”. | In an op-ed in The Resurgent, a conservative online publication, Lee cited the fact that the current bill didn’t incorporate an amendment that he introduced with Ted Cruz to allow insurance companies to offer bare-bones insurance plans. In Lee’s argument, the mandate that insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions resulted in “a hidden tax” which meant that “middle-class families are being forced to pay billions in higher health insurance premiums to help those with pre-existing conditions”. |
| In a statement, Moran took a slightly different tack. He said: “There are serious problems with Obamacare, and my goal remains what it has been for a long time: to repeal and replace it. This closed-door process has yielded the BCRA, which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare’s rising costs.” The Kansas Republican also warned that the current legislation “leave[s] the federal government in control of everyday healthcare decisions” which Moran said made it “more likely that our healthcare system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase”. | |
| The announcement came shortly after a Senate vote on the healthcare bill was delayed due to the hospitalization of John McCain. The Arizona senator had a blood clot removed from above his left eye on Friday night and was unable to fly to Washington as a result. On Saturday, McConnell said the Senate would “defer consideration” of the bill while McCain recovered. A number of other moderate Republican senators have yet to take positions on the bill, most notably Dean Heller of Nevada. | |
| McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. | McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. |
| In a statement, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said: “This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable.” | |
| He added: “Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our healthcare system.” | |
| Lauren Gambino contributed reporting | Lauren Gambino contributed reporting |