What’s next in the Senate health care debate

Several Republicans said they did not know where McCain would fall, and there were audible gasps in the chamber when he turned down his thumb to indicate his decision.

The bill’s failure was met with disdain from many Republicans and the President himself.

“I and many of my colleagues did as we promised and voted to repeal this failed law”, the majority leader said on the Senate floor.

There is still confusion among House Republicans about the contours of the Senate GOP leaders’ plans, but chatter has intensified among rank-and-file members that they need to pay attention now because there is a growing belief that after watching the Senate struggle through the process the ball would soon be in their court. “The very same courage he showed as a naval aviator in Vietnam, he showed last night and has shown time and time again”, Schumer said. Votes were still being held as the Herald went to press.

Three Republicans crossed party lines to join Democrats in a 49-to-51 vote to kill the bill.

Senate Republicans chose to vote on the pared-down “skinny” proposal to repeal portions of Obamacare after failing to reach consensus on a more comprehensive measure since the US House of Representatives approved their bill in May. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and the ailing John McCain.

McCain wrapped up his speech by saying that he has “every intention” of returning to the Senate after treating his tumor, warning that his return will give “many of you cause to regret all the nice things you said about me”. “We will save $’s and have much better healthcare!”

“Why don’t we try the old way of legislating in the Senate, the way our rules and customs encourage us to act”, he said. But by the wee hours of Friday, it was Democrats who wanted to hug the war hero for voting with them to keep the Affordable Care Act on the books and defeat the last Republican plan standing, known as the “skinny” repeal.

He put McCain in the same category as the late Democratic Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “And at the end of it hopefully we’ll have a bill that can bring us together”.

There are not thought to be any further plans for a new bill to repeal Obamacare because the skinny repeal was seen as the bare minimum that Republicans could agree on. Particularly, as Graham said, if this were to become law, that is a scenario in which you really do start to see this death spiral that you hear so much about – that the market and premiums will go way up.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement that “cutting taxes for middle class families and fixing our broken tax code” is at the top of his list when Congress returns from its August recess. In conference, legislators must work with provisions that are already in either bill, they may not add new provisions.

McCain himself campaigned heavily on the “Obamacare” repeal issue a year ago as he won re-election to a sixth and nearly certainly final Senate term.

Ducey had earlier expressed concerns about how legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act could affect Medicaid recipients in Arizona, The governor has said he wants a slower phase-out of higher Medicaid expansion matches, higher inflation adjustments, elimination of a penalty for states that expanded parts of Medicaid early, as well as explicit flexibility for the program covering 1.9 million Arizonans. Yet the scenario at hand, with senators trying to pass something while hoping it does not clear the House or become law, was highly unusual. It is possible that the House will vote on a motion to go to conference on Friday before they leave town as that assurance.

It was to have been the ticket to negotiations with the House, which had passed its own legislation in May.