McConnell will try to repeal Obamarecare without replace

He spoke Tuesday, the morning after the GOP bill collapsed under opposition from Republican senators. “There’s enough chaos already, and this would just contribute to it”, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said. The bill Mitch McConnell crafted in secret (in an unheard-of process for such major legislation) ended up looking a lot like the House’s version.

“I do not support the new plan”, Sen. With Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of ME – a moderate – already opposed, that left leadership short of the 50 votes they needed. Only three defections would kill it – and today, Shelley Moore said no (she says she “did not come to Washington to hurt people”), Collins said no, Murkowski said no, and Rob Portman strongly hinted a no.

“I am delighted to see that the disastrous Republican health care plan will not succeed”, he wrote in a statement.

“We’re going to win on taxes, we’re going to win on infrastructure”, he said. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., vice chair of the Republican conference.

Activists plan to take advantage of the delay and pressure Republican who have expressed concerns about aspects of the bill, including Medicaid cuts and a rollback of its expansion.

McConnell did not say when the Senate would vote on that plan, which comes in stark contrast to a comment he made over the July 4 recess at a Kentucky town hall: “I think repealing and then delaying the replacement doesn’t work”. Those years would provide time for Congress to come up with a new replacement. “This doesn’t have to be the end of the story”.

The president is now encouraging Senate Republicans to simply repeal the Affordable Care Act, leaving any discussion of a replacement for a later date.

Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of ME and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska already have come out against repealing without a replacement. “Our healthcare system would be in such a deep hole that fix would be almost impossible”. “With that in mind, I can not vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians”.

A version of Obamacare repeal passed the House in May, but now its path in the Senate is uncertain, with four Republicans having come out against the present bill. Republicans, however, haven’t given up on rolling back the health-care reform law that allowed at least 20 million people to gain health insurance. He didn’t present a prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress the way President Obama did. “President Trump will sign it now”.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer said in a statement that the “second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive” that the bill is “unworkable”.

Senators have proved harder for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to wrangle.

Obamacare needs to be revised, not repealed.

For their part, moderates disliked the bill because of deep cuts to Medicaid and because the tax credits offered would lead to higher out-of-pocket costs for many in the individual market. Luther Strange, R-Ala.

McConnell could only afford to lose the support of two Republicans.

Instead, McConnell endorsed an approach supported by President Donald Trump to repeal the Affordable Care Act without immediately replacing it with different health care legislation.

Republicans had hoped to finish with healthcare before an upcoming August recess so they could tackle a wide-ranging rewrite of the US tax code in September.

Johnson tells reporters such comments are “troubling” and “a real breach of trust”.

Moran said in a statement that the Better Care Reconciliation Act, or BCRA as the Republican bill was called, didn’t address what he said were the fundamental issues with Obamacare.

With just a 52-48 majority in the Senate, Lee and Moran’s resistance means Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can not move ahead on the bill.