Architects retooling GOP health care bill

WASHINGTON —The Republican senators at the forefront of the latest effort to undo the Affordable Care

Act plan to release a revised version of their bill Monday sending more health care dollars to the states of key holdouts, as resistance from several GOP senators left their proposal on the verge of collapse.

Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-LA., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will propose giving Alaska and Maine get more funding than initially offered. Those states are represented by Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who have expressed concerns about the bill but have yet to say how they would vote.

The Cassidy-graham legislation would overhaul the ACA by lumping together the current law’s spending on insurance subsidies and expanded Medicaid and redistributing it to states in the form of block grants.

Alaska would get 3 percent more funding between 2020 and 2026 than under current law, and Maine would get 43 percent more funding during that time period, according to a summary obtained by The Post.

The plan was distributed among Republicans late Sunday, with party leaders just one “no” vote away from defeat and as Republican senators from across the political spectrum were distancing themselves from the prior draft.

“Eventually we’ll win, whether it’s now or later,” President Donald Trump said of the health care effort Sunday as he prepared to board Air Force One to return to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Collins, a moderate Republican who has opposed previous efforts that cut Medicaid and eased coverage requirements, said in a TV interview earlier Sunday that it was “very difficult” to envision herself voting for the health-care bill.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-texas, a conservative who has advocated a more far-reaching repeal of the ACA, commonly called Obamacare, said he and at least one other conservative colleague do not back the measure “right now.”

And Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY., who has stated definitively that he opposes the current measure, showed no signs of backing down without dramatic changes to the bill’s core approach

The Associated Press GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Ted Cruz of Texas expressed doubts Sunday about their support for the latest Republican effort to repeal Obamacare, but the two senators behind the legislation plan to unveil a revised proposal Monday.