Repeal-And-Delay Goes Down In Flames In The Senate, With More Votes To Come
By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published JULY 26, 2017 4:12 PM
After a wave of Republican defections Tuesday night tanked the Senate GOP’s main Obamacare replacement plan, the Senate held a vote Wednesday morning on bill to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act but delay its effect until 2020 to allow time to cobble together a replacement.
That vote similarly failed, 45 to 55. Seven Republicans joined with every single Democrat to defeat the bill: Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), Dean Heller (R-NV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Rob Portman (R-OH) all voted no.
Several Republican senators from purple states that have expanded Medicaid voted yes on repeal-and-delay, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ).
The so-called “clean repeal” bill championed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) would have cut more than $800 billion from Medicaid, ended the Medicaid expansion in one fell swoop, scrapped the subsidies that help low-income people buy insurance, and eliminated the individual mandate, sending the market into a death spiral. To the consternation of some hardline conservatives, it would have left many of Obamacare’s regulations in place.
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