Focus should be on fixing Obamacare, Collins says

gram and replace it with a percapita grant program. Collins said the bill’s changes to Medicaid would “have a devastating impact.”

Collins also said she had issues with the Graham-Cassidy waiver system, which she said would “weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

“The CBO’s analysis on the earlier version of the bill, incomplete though it is due to time constraints, confirms that this bill will have a substantially negative impact on the number of people covered by insurance,” Collins said in a statement.

Collins said she had no confidence that the new version of the bill released over the weekend would improve the legislation or dampen its negative impact on Maine.

“This is simply not the way that we should be approaching an important and complex issue that must be handled thoughtfully and fairly for all Americans,” she said.

The CBO also estimated “disruptions and other implementation problems would accompany the transition” because of the short time frame states would have to set up their health systems. Collins said she had been lobbied by President Trump, Vice President Pence and others.

“It would probably be a shorter list of who hasn’t called me on this bill,” she told reporters.

The Maine senator is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which had been working on a bipartisan approach to stabilize the individual health insurance market until last week, when Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he was unable to come to a compromise with the committee’s top Democrat.

Collins told reporters Monday night she was encouraged by the bipartisan process on the Senate HELP Committee. She said the focus should be on fixing Obamacare rather than replacing it.

Her announcement followed a Finance Committee hearing on the legislation that took up much of the afternoon — including a brief delay caused by protesters, many in wheelchairs, chanting their opposition to Medicaid cuts.

The hearing had been an attempt to appease lawmakers critical of the lack of regular order that had gone on with the bill, but following weekend announcements of opposition by key senators, it seemed like merely a formality.

During a recess, Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was asked what chance the bill has of passing. “Zero,” he replied. “I don’t think it has much chance. The Democrats aren’t going to support it. They’re too interested in demagoguing it.”