5th GOP senator says it’s a no-go

A fifth GOP senator said Friday that he could not support the Senate’s plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, putting the proposed overhaul of the US health-care system in further jeopardy.

Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada said at a news conference in his home state that he opposed the current Republican health-care bill because it called for steep cuts in Medicaid spending.

“I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans,” said Heller, who is up for reelection in 2018.

Like the majority of states, Nevada increased Medicaid spending under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Heller joins four conservative members — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah — in opposing the plan.

President Trump on Friday predicted recalcitrant Republicans would come together and support the bill and said he was willing to work with them to find common ground.

“It’s a very complicated situation from the standpoint, you do something that’s good for one group but bad for another,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”

“It’s that very, very narrow path. But I think we’re going to get there. We have four very good people that — it’s not that they’re opposed; they’d like to get certain changes. And we’ll see if we can take care of that.”

The four conservatives had opposed the bill hours after it was unveiled Thursday, saying they could not vote for it because it didn’t go far enough to repeal all of ObamaCare’s provisions.