Republicans’ new push to repeal Obamacare without implementing an immediate replacement is already on the verge of failing.
After the collapse Monday night of the latest GOP plan to replace Obamacare, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he aimed to pass a bill to repeal the law and then pass a replacement during a “stable two-year transition period.” The GOP-controlled Congress voted to do so in 2015 knowing that then-President Barack Obama would veto the bill.
On Tuesday, after McConnell revived the repeal-only effort, members of his caucus jeopardized that goal. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., said they would not support a repeal bill without a replacement.
The GOP holds 52 seats in the Senate, and passing a plan under budget reconciliation rules requires 50 votes, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie. But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is out of the Senate recovering from a surgery, so losing two votes will stall a Republican plan, for now.
The GOP’s effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, a Republican campaign promise for most of the last decade, has stalled multiple times this year amid party divisions. The GOP chose to address the health-care overhaul before it took on tax reform, another key campaign plank, and every setback is seen as delaying the party’s broader agenda.
Collins said Tuesday that she would oppose even a procedural motion to start debate on the proposal. Capito added that she would only support the motion to proceed if she is “confident there is a replacement plan that addresses [her] concerns.”
Collins told reporters Tuesday that she fears the effects of repealing Obamacare without a replacement.
“I voted against this approach in 2015 and I do not think that it is going to be constructive to repeal a law that at this point that is so interwoven within our health-care system and then hope that over the next two years we will come up with some kind of replacement.”
The Senate’s Obamacare replacement plan that collapsed Monday night faced skepticism from both GOP conservatives who wanted a full repeal and moderates who largely feared its potential effects on coverage and costs. Four Republicans — Collins, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas — opposed the motion to proceed on that plan before McConnell shifted to pushing repeal without an immediate replacement.
While repeal-first appealed more to the GOP’s conservative wing, moderates like Collins and Capito have expressed concerns about it.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also expressed doubts Tuesday about a repeal without a replacement but did not say whether he would support the bill.
“If it is a bill that simply repeals, I believe it will add to more uncertainty,” he told reporters.
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