GOP scrambles to clinch votes for health bill

5 Republican senators say they can’t support legislation as is; others also waffling

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders are scrambling to rally support for their health care bill as opposition continues to build inside and outside Congress, and as several Republican senators question whether it will be approved this week.

President Donald Trump expressed confidence that the bill to repeal the guts of the Affordable Care Act would pass.

“Health care is a very, very tough thing to get,” Trump said in an interview shown Sunday on Fox News. “But I think we’re going to get it. We don’t have too much of a choice, because the alternative is the dead carcass of Obamacare.”

With Democrats solidly opposed to the legislation, Senate Republicans must find the votes from within. They can afford to lose only two votes, but five Republican senators have announced that they cannot support the health care bill as drafted, and others have expressed concerns.

Senate leaders have been trying to lock down Republican votes by funneling money to red states, engineering a special deal for Alaska and arguing that they could insure more people at a lower cost than the House, which passed a repeal bill last month.

But as more analysis of the bill reached state officials, especially in places that expanded Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act, misgivings grew. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA. and a doctor who is considered a critical vote, said he remained undecided. Louisiana, with its high levels of poverty, recently expanded Medicaid.

“There are things in this bill which adversely