John McCain hurts health bill’s chances
John McCain again delivers potentially fatal blow to effort
The Republican senator says he’ll not vote in favor of the sweeping changes to Obamacare now being considered.
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain dealt a critical blow to Republicans’ lastditch attempt to roll back the Affordable Care Act on Friday, announcing that he could not “in good conscience” vote for sweeping repeal legislation that GOP leaders plan to bring to the Senate floor next week.
Echoing concerns he raised over the summer when he helped defeat an earlier repeal bill in a dramatic late-night vote, McCain also delivered a stern rebuke of his party’s attempt to push through the large, complex measure with little public scrutiny, only one hearing planned for and no support from Democrats.
“We should not be content to pass health care legislation on a party-line basis,” McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement criticizing the GOP.
“I take no pleasure in announcing my opposition. Far from it. The bill’s authors are my dear friends,” he said, referring to Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La. “I hope that in the months ahead, we can join with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to arrive at a compromise solution that is acceptable to most of us, and serves the interests of Americans as best we can.”
McCain’s move raises serious questions about whether Republicans have the votes to advance their latest repeal effort, which only days ago seemed to be gaining momentum.
The party, which has 52 votes in the Senate, can lose only two more Republicans, or the bill will fail, even with Vice President Mike Pence’s ability to cast a tie-breaking vote.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has said he would oppose the bill, which he complained maintains too much of the current law’s government spending on health care.
“I won’t vote for Obamacare Lite that keeps 90 percent of the taxes & spending just so some people can claim credit for something that didn’t happen,” Paul tweeted Friday.
Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, centrist Republicans who joined McCain to help sink the GOP repeal effort in July, have signaled reservations about the current proposal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had indicated he wanted to put the Graham-Cassidy proposal to a vote next week, as Republicans face a Sept. 30 deadline under Senate rules to be able to advance a repeal bill with only 50 votes.
The Graham-Cassidy proposal, which first emerged over the summer, was initially dismissed by many GOP senators, but the month-end deadline and pressure from the party’s conservative base to fulfill the repeal pledge has prompted a scramble by Senate Republican leaders and the White House.
President Donald Trump and Pence have been calling senators for days trying to build support. GOP leaders have been offering various sweeteners to win votes, including more money for states such as Alaska.
“Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as ‘the Republican who saved ObamaCare.’ ” Trump tweeted Friday.
Pence met Friday with Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, while calling on Collins to support the bill. The vice president also conducted a round of Alaska radio interviews Thursday urging listeners to prod their senators to back Graham-Cassidy, even though that state’s governor opposes the bill.
Because of the friendship between McCain and Graham, many Republicans had remained hopeful that the senior Arizona senator could be convinced to support the new effort. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, also threw his support behind the Graham-Cassidy bill.
But the plan has generated a storm of opposition recently from patient advocates, hospitals, physician groups and a growing number of health care experts.
Public opposition is also substantial, with a new ABC News/Washington Post poll showing that Americans by more than a 20point margin prefer the existing law to the current GOP repeal bill.
Every significant independent analysis of the proposal has calculated it will lead to huge cuts in federal health care aid, which, in turn, will likely erode health insurance for tens of millions of Americans.
On Friday, the National Association of Medicaid Directors, who run state safety net programs that would see huge cuts under Graham-Cassidy, called on Congress to slow down and consider the bill more carefully.
“Any effort of this magnitude needs thorough discussion, examination and analysis, and should not be rushed through without proper deliberation,” the bipartisan group said.
The centerpiece of the latest GOP bill is a new system for distributing hundreds of billions of dollars of federal money that would restructure how the government provides health care assistance to some 80 million Americans.
The bill would effectively end both the current Medicaid program, which covers poor Americans, and the system of insurance subsidies made available by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, to help low- and moderateincome consumers buy health plans.
It also would mark the biggest change to how the nation’s health care is financed in more than 50 years.
In place of these programs, the federal government would give states blocks of money to redesign their health care safety nets, while also capping future federal support for states.