President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare appeared set for another defeat on Tuesday as a third Republican Senator broke ranks to oppose the new legislative effort mounted by the party in its prolonged quest.
Senator Susan Collins, reputed to be a moderate Republican, announced her decision to vote against the repeal and replace measure after a report by the nonpartisan Congress Budget Office projected that millions of Americans would lose their health insurance under the alternative Bill sponsored by Republican Senators lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy.
The Republicans have a tenuous two-seat majority in the 100-member Senate and with Collins joining two other party naysayers, Senators John McCain and Rand Paul,
virtually spelled the death of the new Bill.
For Trump, who has endlessly campaigned on dismantling Obamacare (officially called The Affordable Care Act), this could be the second setback as an earlier effort had collapsed in July.
Although Senators Graham and Cassidy said they would press ahead with the legislation, there were doubts whether the party leadership in the Senate would bring it to vote, given the near-certain defeat of the measure.
“You don’t have one Democrat vote for it… So it’s going to fail,” said senior Republican and Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch, remarking, “Everybody knows that’s going to fail.”
Graham himself was intent on putting the Bill to vote, regardless of the chances of its success. As he commented during a CNN debate on Monday night, “It’s okay to vote. It’s okay to fall short, if you do, for an idea you believe in.” He went on to say, “This is not the last chance, this is the best chance” to preserve health care for millions.
Collins’ was regarded as a critical vote for the chances of passage, so much so that Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Health Secretary Tom Price all reached out to her over the last couple of days. But none of that swayed the Senator from Maine.
Calling the new repeal effort deeply-flawed and would weaken protection for people with pre-existing health conditions, Collins said, “Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame, especially when the actual Bill is a moving target.”
McCain, the influential Senator from Arizona, regards Graham as his best friend in the Senate. Even so, he had made it clear that he would not be supporting the Graham-Cassidy Bill. like Collins, he also faulted Republicans for trying to pass a sweeping healthcare legislation without involving the Democrats and holding extensive public deliberations.
Senator Paul voiced his opposition to the new Bill for an altogether different reason, saying it did not go far enough in repealing Obamacare. So much so, he regards it as a “fake repeal” exercise.
The Graham-Cassidy Bill among other things, proposed to eliminate Obamacare’s key mandatory provision of fining citizens who do not obtain health insurance. “Everybody on this stage thinks the current system is broken,” Senator Cassidy said during the CNN debate.