Health bill’s death creates opportunities

WASHINGTON— Congressional lawmakers said Friday that the collapse of Republican efforts to demolish the Affordable Care Act had created an opening for bipartisan work to shore up health insurance markets and protect consumers against sharp increases in premiums.

But any such effort would have to overcome the firm resistance of President Donald Trump and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill who have refused to participate in any effort to fortify former president Barack Obama’s health law.

The professions of a desire for bipartisan co-operation were as profuse Friday as the short-term outlook for tangible results was grim.

“On health care, I hope we can work together to make the system better in a bipartisan way,” said the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, who led efforts to preserve the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans’ seven-year promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act seemed to come to an end early Friday when 51 senators — including three Republicans — blocked a narrow version of repeal that would have rolled back only a few provisions of the sweeping health care law.

Without a Republican majority to approve either a comprehensive replacement for the health law or a repeal-only bill, Republican leaders had fallen back on what they called the lowest common denominator. And that failed, too.

Republican Sen. John McCain, who cast the decisive vote against the bill around 1:30 a.m. Friday, appealed for a bipartisan approach.

But there was no hint of an olive branch from the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who this summer suggested that a failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act would force him to work with Schumer.

“Bailing out insurance companies with no thought of any kind of reform is not something I want to be part of,” McConnell said early Friday.