|
 "Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and
immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be
successful," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a
statement.
Two of McConnell's Senate conservatives announced just hours earlier
that they would not support the Republican leader's latest version
of legislation to repeal portions of President Barack Obama's
landmark 2010 healthcare law and replace them with new, less costly
healthcare provisions.
With Republican Senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran joining Senators
Susan Collins and Rand Paul in opposition - and amid a solid wall of
opposition from Democrats - McConnell no longer had enough votes to
pass a Republican healthcare bill in the 100-member Senate.
It was the latest in a series of healthcare setbacks for
Republicans, despite their control of both chambers of Congress and
the White House.
It also came after seven straight years of promising voters that
they would repeal Obamacare if they were to control Congress and the
White House, only to find that the public liked Obamacare more than
their proposed substitutes, according to public opinion polls.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that the
various versions of Republican healthcare legislation would result
in anywhere from 18 million to 23 million people losing their health
insurance.
However, Republicans argue that Obamacare is a government over-reach
and costs too much money.
MAJOR BLOW
Monday's developments had an immediate impact on financial markets
as Asian shares stepped back from more than two-year highs on
Tuesday and the dollar extended losses. [nL3N1K907K]
In the United States, the latest setback delivered a major political
blow to Trump, who has failed to win any major legislative
initiative in the first six months of his presidency.
In response, Trump said on Twitter Congress should immediately
repeal Obamacare and "start from a clean slate" on a new healthcare
plan. He said Democrats would join such an effort, even though they
have refused to have any part of an Obamacare repeal.
McConnell, apparently backing Trump's latest approach, announced
that he would try to bring legislation to repeal Obamacare to the
Senate floor in coming days, but with a two-year delay in
implementation to assure a smooth transition.
That idea was rejected by Republicans months ago in favor of
simultaneously repealing and replacing Obamacare in order to avoid
chaos in insurance markets.
Republican Senator John McCain, who is recovering from surgery in
his home state of Arizona, urged a much different change of course -
bipartisanship.
"The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings,
receive input from members of both parties" and pass a bill that
"finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable
health care," McCain said in a statement.
[to top of second column] |
"START FROM SCRATCH"
It was not yet clear whether Republicans would get behind the latest
Trump-McConnell plans or McCain's prescription.
Like McCain, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer held out the
possibility of bipartisanship. In a statement, he urged Republicans
to "start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers
premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves
our health care system."
Republicans in Congress had been hoping to settle on a healthcare
bill before an upcoming August recess so they could begin work in
earnest in September on a wide-ranging rewrite of the U.S. tax code.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan had no immediate comment
on the next steps he would like to see following the collapse of the
healthcare bill in the Senate.
One health industry lobbyist said that, in the run-up to the second
collapse of the Senate's healthcare bill this summer, there was
growing anger among senators over proposed Medicaid cuts and an
amendment by Senator Ted Cruz that would have allowed insurance
companies to offer cheaper plans that did not have Obamacare's
guaranteed coverage of services such as maternity care.
A similar version of the Senate bill passed the House in May but
passage in the Senate was always expected to be more difficult,
given the deep tensions between moderates and conservatives.
Moderates worry about cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program
for the poor and disabled, while conservatives want those cuts as
well as a more dramatic dismantling of Obamacare's framework.
The first version of the Senate bill failed to attract enough
support, forcing McConnell's office to revise it in a bid to make it
more palatable. That version was released last week.
Senator Bernie Sanders, the former Democratic presidential
candidate, celebrated what he termed the "collapse" of the
Republican effort.
"This is a great victory for the millions of Americans who stood up
and fought back against this dangerous legislation," Sanders said in
a statement.
(Writing by Richard Cowan, additional reporting by Susan Cornwell,
Steve Holland and James Oliphant; Editing by Paul Tait)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
