Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said he believes his party will pick up more Senate seats during the 2018 midterm elections, which would help the party fulfill its long-held promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, according to an audio recording obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“I think at the end of the day we end up with 53, 54 seats. If we can do that, then we can repeal and replace and change the ACA as we know it today,” he said, referring to the Affordable Care Act, the formal name for Obamacare.
Republicans hold a slight majority at 51 seats, with eight up for re-election or headed into retirement.
Heller, who is among those up for re-election, noted that last summer three GOP senators had voted with Democrats to oppose the legislation repealing portions of Obamacare. The senators were Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., and John McCain, R-Ariz., and the efforts to repeal most of the law ultimately failed.
“We need 51 votes,” said Heller, who had gone back and forth on his support for repeal and replace measures during 2017. “And right now we know there’s three votes we’re missing for that 51: John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.”
Heller had voted against the full repeal bill but had voted in favor of a “skinny repeal” bill that would have axed Obamacare’s penalty for going uninsured, known as the individual mandate, as well as some taxes.
Republicans did pass a tax code overhaul signed by President Trump that undoes the individual mandate beginning in 2019.
Heller’s comments were made at the Nevada Republican Men’s Club in Las Vegas.
