WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A proposal by U.S. Republicans to repeal and replace the Obamacare health insurance program suffered serious new setbacks within the party on Sunday, when Senator Ted Cruz expressed his opposition and Senator Susan Collins dug in with strong criticism of the legislation. <\/p>\n
Two other Republican senators, John McCain and Rand Paul, already said last week they would vote against the so-called Graham-Cassidy bill. One more \u201cno\u201d vote among Republicans would effectively kill the party\u2019s latest effort in their seven-year mission to overturn Obamacare, while dealing a new blow to President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has said he \u201cintends\u201d to put the bill up for a vote this week, but he has withheld public comment over the past few days as some of his rank-and-file Republicans abandoned Trump. <\/p>\n
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, interviewed on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union,\u201d reflected the uncertainty in the battle. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be very close. I hope it passes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Phil Novack, a spokesman for Cruz, confirmed that the Republican senator said at an event in Texas: \u201cRight now, they don\u2019t have my vote, and I don\u2019t think they have (Senator) Mike Lee\u2019s vote, either.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lee is a conservative Republican and close ally of Cruz. A spokesman for Lee said the senator wanted \u201csome technical changes\u201d to the legislation, but did not provide details. \u201cWe haven\u2019t committed to anything yet,\u201d Conn Carroll said in an email. <\/p>\n
Politico reported that Cruz complained that the latest Obamacare repeal bill did not address his concerns about bringing down the costs of healthcare. <\/p>\n
On Friday, news of McCain\u2019s opposition sent shares of health insurance companies up. Centene ended 1.6 percent higher and Humana closed up 0.2 percent. <\/p>\n
Trump has pressured his fellow Republicans for quick passage on what would be his first victory on major legislation. All Democrats are expected to vote against it. <\/p>\n
But Collins, perhaps the most moderate of Republican senators, appeared poised to oppose her party\u2019s latest replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama\u2019s signature legislative achievement. <\/p>\n
She, along with McCain and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, voted in July against an earlier version of Obamacare repeal. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very difficult for me to envision a scenario where I would end up voting for this bill,\u201d Collins said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d on Sunday, two days after saying she was \u201cleaning against\u201d the legislation. <\/p>\n
Collins said her concerns centered on the impact the legislation would have on the federal Medicaid program, which helps disabled children and low-income elderly people get healthcare. <\/p>\n
The Senate, which Republicans control by 52-48, faces a Saturday deadline for deciding on the bill under an expiring rule that lets the healthcare proposal pass with just a simple majority in the 100-member chamber, instead of the 60-vote threshold needed for most legislation. <\/p>\n
Paul, interviewed on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d attacked the centerpiece of the Republican bill that would have the federal government basically turn the health insurance system over to states in the form of \u201cblock grants.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThey could remove the block grants from it, and we can vote on what we actually agree on,\u201d Paul said. \u201cI can\u2019t in good conscience vote to keep all the spending.\u201d <\/p>\n
Some key Senate Republicans were still pushing to forge ahead. <\/p>\n
Senator Lindsey Graham, who is leading the charge on the latest version of Obamacare repeal, told ABC he believed he would have the votes to pass the legislation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way you know how people will vote is you have the vote,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Graham did not detail the path he sees to victory. <\/p>\n
Reporting by Richard Cowan and Valerie Volcovici; Additional reporting by Sarah Lynch; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/feeds.reuters.com\/~r\/Reuters\/PoliticsNews\/~3\/Go9qSOWKyvA\/u-s-senate-opposition-to-obamacare-repeal-bill-grows-idUSKCN1BZ0E7<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A proposal by U.S. Republicans to repeal and replace the Obamacare health insurance program suffered serious new setbacks within the party on Sunday, when Senator Ted Cruz expressed his opposition and Senator Susan Collins dug in with strong criticism of the legislation. Two other Republican senators, John McCain and Rand Paul, already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-92585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}