Washington (CNN)The Senate rejected a proposal from Republican lawmakers to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday, marking a significant milestone in the Republican Party's years-long political crusade to gut former President Barack Obama's legacy health care law.
The vote was 45-55, with seven Republicans
opposing the measure.
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http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/health-care-bill-wednesday/index.html
The failed effort was a remarkable contrast
from less than two years ago, when a
Republican-controlled House and Senate
passed an identical measure and sent it to
Obama. He vetoed the bill. In 2015, the
passage of that legislation was largely
viewed as a political messaging exercise:
GOP lawmakers were keenly aware that Obama
would not sign it into law.
But now, with Republican President Donald
Trump in the White House and ready to sign a
bill, the stakes are real -- as are the
realities of voting to repeal the current
health care law without a replacement in
place. The failure crystalized the new
reality for Republicans: more than seven
years after the enactment of Obamacare,
there is growing recognition within the GOP
that a straight repeal of the law is not
viable.
Later Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer said Democrats will not offer
any more amendments on health care until
they know what the final bill will be.
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Susan
Collins, Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski,
John McCain, Rob Portman and Lamar
Alexander all voted against the
amendment.
"I'm for repeal and replace and we're
going to continue to work on
replacement," Portman, R-Ohio, said
after the vote.
"I didn't think repeal only was
appropriate because it didn't provide
for those people who are stuck in the
status quo."
The proposal would have significantly
gut the Affordable Care Act by repealing
its unpopular individual and employer
mandates, ending Medicaid expansion and
rolling back a slew of the law's taxes.
The repeal would not go into effect for
two years -- a "transition period"
during which Republicans would draft a
replacement plan.
The
Congressional Budget Office estimates
the proposal would result 32 million
more uninsured over the next decade.
Three-quarters of the nation would live
in areas with no insurers participating
in the individual market by 2026, CBO
said, leaving many without an option if
they do not have employer-provided or
government health insurance, such as
Medicare or Medicaid.
The vote came during the Senate's second
day of a marathon debate to dismantle
Obamacare, with Republican senators
continuing painstaking deliberations to
reach an ultimate agreement on health
care reform.
Senators were initially scheduled to
vote on the 2015 repeal measure around
mid-day, but that plan was unexpectedly
delayed until later in the afternoon.
According to a Democratic aide, the
holdup was over language in the
amendment about Planned Parenthood, and
whether it passed the so-called "Byrd
Rule," which determines what language is
permissible under the budget
reconciliation process.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn
described the snafu to reporters as a
"kerfuffle" and said that there was a
need to make "arguments to the
parliamentarian."
What's next?
The goal for Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell at the moment is to find a way
to get 50 Republicans to back a final
bill -- whatever it looks like.
As with the full repeal without
immediate replacement vote, the GOP
leadership is getting a sense of where
their members are on various proposals,
as well as testing out revised language
with the parliamentarian on things like
the Planned Parenthood defunding
provision.
If McConnell can get 50 votes, he can
bring the repeal and replace bill to
conference with the House. That was why
the emergence of the "skinny repeal"
option Tuesday is noteworthy -- a scaled
back version of repeal that would knock
out the Obamacare mandates and some of
the taxes. In no way would Republicans
want something like to that to become
law in isolation. But it may become an
option just to get something across the
finish line, for now. Then they would
attempt to hammer out a more
comprehensive repeal and replace
proposal in the conference with the
House.
This story will be updated.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/health-care-bill-wednesday/index.html