Bill unlikely to pass:
With Collins a ‘no,’ it’s unlikely last-ditch overhaul will pass
With three GOP defections, the measure seems doomed.
WASHINGTON Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a key Republican vote on health care, announced Monday that she will oppose the last-ditch GOP effort to overhaul Obamacare, essentially leaving the bill dead.
Republicans, with 52 seats in the Senate, can lose just two votes and still pass the bill introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Bill Cassidy, R-La., Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., intended to bring the bill to the floor for a vote this week before a Sept. 30 deadline for the Senate to act.
Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas all have said they are against the bill. While Cruz had been against the current version, he had been hoping for more tweaks in the legislation. Shortly after Collins’ announcement, Cruz tweeted: “We cannot give up on Obamacare repeal. We must keep working. We can get to yes.”
The bill’s sponsors, however, already made changes over the weekend to the funding model in the hopes of winning votes.
Collins’ announcement came just after after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a limited analysis estimating “the number of people with comprehensive health insurance that covers high-cost medical events would be reduced by millions” under the legislation over the next decade. CBO said it was not clear the exact number of people who would be uninsured because it was difficult to estimate how states would react.
If passed, the legislation would have kept most Obamacare taxes in place but sent the money back to the states in the form of block grants to design their own health systems, waiving Obamacare’s minimum insurance requirements. It also would have ended the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid eligibility and temporarily replaced that money with block grants through 2026.
The bill would also overhaul the traditional Medicaid pro-