Bill vote delayed due to Senator’s surgery

The US Senate will “defer” its work on repealing and replacing Obamacare as senior lawmaker John McCain recovers from surgery to remove a blood clot above his eye, the chamber’s Republican leader announced.

The health care reform bill, a central campaign pledge by President Donald Trump and many of his fellow Republicans, has already neared collapse, with two Republicans publicly opposing it. It would likely fail without McCain’s vote.

“There are few people tougher than my friend John McCain, and I know he’ll be back with us soon,” Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday, wishing the senior Arizona lawmaker well. “While John is recovering, the Senate will continue our work on legislative items and nominations, and will defer consideration of the Better Care Act.”

The Mayo Clinic, which performed the surgery on Friday in Phoenix, said the five-centimetre blood clot was “successfully removed” from above his left eye during a “minimally invasive” craniotomy with an eyebrow incision. Tissue pathology reports are awaited.

McCain’s office said the lawmaker is “in good spirits and recovering comfortably at home with his family,” would recover in Arizona through next week.

Achieving Trump’s goal to end predecessor Barack Obama’s 2010 sweeping reforms has been elusive in the first six months of the new administration.