For the third time in three days, a majority of Republicans failed to coalesce around a way to repeal and replace Obamacare, as Republicans from the center and right voted no on a “skinny repeal.”
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) broke party lines to shoot down the Health Care Freedom Act, which landed at a 49-51 vote. The bill would have eliminated the individual mandate, as well as temporarily suspending the employer mandate and temporarily raising the amount of money that can be contributed pre-tax to Health Savings Accounts.
It’s unclear what the Senate will do now, as this was seen as the last, best hope to find consensus in a party divided on how to handle Medicaid and reforms to individual insurance.
“This is a disappointment; a disappointment indeed,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor after the vote failed. “I regret that our efforts simply were not enough this time.”
The American Medical Association Thursday night urged senators to reject the skinny repeal bill in favor of a bipartisan ACA replacement.
“Action is needed to address problems in the individual insurance market, but the so-called ‘skinny’ bill is a toxic prescription that would make matters worse,” said AMA president Dr. David Barbe in a statement. “Eliminating the individual mandate will lead to adverse selection, triggering higher premiums and further destabilizing the individual market. The stated goal was to advance policies to lower premiums, but the ‘skinny’ bill would do the exact opposite, harming patients across the country.”
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told a group in his home state a few weeks ago that if Republicans failed to pass a repeal, the party would turn to Democrats to cooperate on shoring up the individual markets. In some rural counties in some states, no insurers have signed up to sell policies on the exchanges in 2018.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (D-Tenn.) has scheduled a hearing in the Senate committee that handles health matters, and that may be where the process begins. But it’s not clear there are 12 Republicans who would be willing to spend more money to shore up a bill they have excoriated for seven years.
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