GOP stalls again on repealing Obamacare

“I think everybody in there, maybe except for one senator, promised their supporters, their voters that they supported repeal of Obamacare”, said Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened once more to end required payments to insurance companies unless lawmakers repeal and replace the Obama-era health care law.

“That joined a number of moderate Republicans to the interests of Democrats in not cutting or curtailing Medicaid in a dramatic way”, said economist Gail Wilensky, a Republican. Susan Collins of ME and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. In May, Trump called for the election of “more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%”.

Senate Republicans were closer than ever to finally repealing Obamacare. Congressional Republicans have been working on their alternative to the Affordable Care Act for seven years. Health care might have to wait while tensions ease and Republicans who control the House, Senate and White House rethink their approach.

The defeat ends – for now – the health care debate in Congress. If this fails, the process fails, so the Senate should just pass this and allow a conference committee to work towards a different solution.

But leaders were encountering problems. Several lawmakers said House deputy whip Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told them the song was meant as a reference to the Senate. Trump called Pence, who handed the phone to McCain for a short discussion. “Don’t let the American people down!”

He didn’t get Congress to repeal it and replace it immediately, or at all as of yet.

He pulled the bill from the floor thereafter.

“This is clearly a disappointing moment”, McConnell said, his voice cracking.

“When you see a great vision being frustrated by a few people, that’s when you start to feel the power of duty”, Graham said as he praised Trump, going on to add, “When you see these obstacles constraining the vision, it’s tough”.

After a long night of drama and debate, Senate Republicans failed to pass what was considered a final effort.

Later in the day, he stuck with that line in a speech in Brentwood, New York, “I said from the beginning: Let Obamacare implode and then do it”.

But left-leaning advocates say that these centers would not be able to make up for the loss of Planned Parenthood, which provides targeted sexual and reproductive health care services to 2.4 million Americans at more than 600 locations. “This effort will continue”, Price said. “While the amendment would have repealed some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens”.

Premiums would have gone up because insurers feared that without the penalty and the health law’s underlying requirement to carry insurance, some healthy people would drop their coverage. Instead, they got 49 votes.

House Speaker Paul Ryan responded, noting the House was willing to negotiate.

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (L) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) participate in a news conference to talk about new legislation to restrict prisoner transfers from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington January 13, 2015.

McConnell, R-Ky., is calling his bill the Health Care Freedom Act, but among his colleagues it’s known as “skinny repeal”. Mitch M, go to 51 Votes NOW and WIN. And Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) wants a guarantee that the House won’t turn around and pass it.

Three Republican senators – Arizona’s John McCain, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins – voted to kill the GOP drive to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

In a tweet Saturday afternoon, Trump said, “Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead!”

And some Republicans still have concerns about its contents and the process.

Aides have said that a “skinny” bill is likely to be just a repeal of the individual and employer mandates in ObamaCare, as well as the medical device tax, though Cornyn said the contents have not been fully determined yet.

In Nevada, Republican Danny Tarkanian-a frequent candidate who has been considering a primary challenge to Sen. “The stated goal was to advance policies to lower premiums, but the “skinny” bill would do the exact opposite, harming patients across the country”.

We don’t yet have a firm head-count on the incomplete bill, but what’s also intriguing right now is that GOP officials can’t agree among themselves about the underlying point of this legislation.