What’s Next for Obamacare Repeal After Friday’s Failed Vote?

The bill, dubbed the Health Care Freedom Act, would have repealed ObamaCare’s individual and employer mandates, defunded Planned Parenthood for a year, and allowed states to request waivers from benefits mandated by ObamaCare.

But no one should be fooled.

House Speaker Ryan issued a statement Thursday, saying that “If moving forward requires a conference committee, that is something the House is willing to do”.

The “skinny repeal” – which was aimed at repealing the aspects of the Affordable Care Act that all factions of the conference agreed upon while leaving large portions in tact – was a last-ditch effort by leadership hoping to use the bill as a vehicle to conference with the lower chamber.

GOP leaders would craft that version behind closed doors during Congress’ August recess and in early September.

The skinny bill included a series of amendments that aimed to repeal certain unpopular parts of the Affordable Care Act. He said he also was concerned that the Medicaid cuts called for in the bills would have jeopardized rural hospitals and nursing homes in Kansas.

McCain returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday just 10 days after finding out that he has an aggressive form of brain cancer.

But on Friday, Representative Mark Meadows told Fox News that he recently spoke with President Trump and that Republicans are going to try to bring up a new health care bill in a few weeks.

“I regret that our efforts were simply not enough this time”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor after the vote.

Mr Trump’s failure sent the dollar down against a basket of other currencies yesterday and leaves him without a major legislative win after more than six months in power, despite Republicans controlling the White House, Senate and House.

McCain says that the Senate’s essential qualities of trust and bipartisanship have been missing in recent years as senators have succumbed to “partisan rancor and gridlock”.

To be sure, a “skinny repeal” itself would be a very damaging piece of legislation if enacted.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated late Thursday night that 16 million more Americans would lose coverage by 2026, and premiums would increase between 2018 and 2026 by 20 percent compared with current law. But that’s not where Republican congressional leaders want the process to end up. Her counterpart in the Senate, Chuck Schumer of NY, said after the votes that Democrats who resisted the GOP legislation “are not celebrating”.

“Skinny repeal is equal to full repeal”, Schumer said on the Senate floor earlier Wednesday. “But we in the House were able to get legislation through”. We thought they deserved better.

The task of replacing Obamacare could have been bipartisan, but the task of repealing it had to be done by the Republican Party alone.

McCain’s vote was pivotal as Republicans, who hold a 52-seat majority, scrambled to round up 50 votes on a motion to advance legislation to repeal Obamacare. And the conference process that Senator McConnell now would use would only strengthen his hand.