Andrew Harnik / AP
The Senate health care bill appears to be dead after two new Republican senators announced Monday evening they would vote against it, bringing the total to four. It takes just three "no" votes to kill the bill.
Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, both on the conservative wing of the conference, released statements Monday saying they would not support a motion to put the bill to a vote on the floor.
"After conferring with trusted experts regarding the latest version of the Consumer Freedom Amendment, I have decided I cannot support the current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act," said the statement attributed to Sen. Lee. "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."
Moran likewise said that the "closed-door process" did not do enough to address health costs and Republicans shouldn't put a "stamp of approval on bad policy." Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul also opposes the bill based on similar concerns. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine opposes it chiefly based on cuts to Medicaid and removal of protections for people with pre-existing health conditions.
The development puts the GOP leadership's bid to repeal and replace Obamacare in crisis. Unless two of these four senators change their mind, the bill is dead. And other senators who have yet to declare could also end up voting against the bill.
Most recently, GOP leadership rewrote the bill to keep hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Obamacare taxes on the rich and directed them to health spending in a bid to win over moderates. The risk was always that this would alienate conservatives who were on the fence and this appears to have happened.
LINK: No One Is Talking About The Things That Would Actually Make Health Insurance Cheaper
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/2u3GxVD
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