Senate GOP effort to unwind ACA collapses
Third Republican won’t back measure
WASHINGTON — The latest Republican effort to unwind the Affordable Care Act collapsed on Monday, as a third GOP senator announced her opposition to the proposal and left it short of the votes it would need to win passage.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced she could not back the measure authored by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy, La., and Lindsey Graham, S.C., moments after a much-anticipated partial analysis of the measure by the Congressional Budget Office forecast that “millions” of Americans would lose coverage by 2026 if it was enacted.
Two GOP senators — Rand Paul, Ky., and John McCain, Ariz. — had already come out against the bill, even after a new round of drafting, and Collins’ announcement means it lacks the votes to pass. Republicans hold a 52-to-48 advantage in the Senate and can lose only two votes from their party and still pass legislation with the help of a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Pence.
A fourth Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas, indicated through his aides Monday that he could not back the bill because it does not go far enough in repealing the 2010 law.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who had been overseeing a raucous hearing on the proposal, said Monday evening that he would only allow one more round of questions given the bill’s predicament.
Collins delivered a scathing assessment of the bill in a statement, saying the fourth version that the senators had produced in an effort to win over her vote and others’ “is as deeply flawed as the previous iterations.”
“Health care is a deeply personal, complex issue that affects every single one of us and onesixth of the American economy,” she said. “Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame, especially when the actual bill is a moving target.”
Unlike earlier GOP proposals to repeal the ACA, Senate leaders have remained one step removed from the process.