Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Monday she will oppose Republican legislation to overhaul Obamacare, leaving the bill short of the votes needed for passage ahead of a vote expected this week.
Collins said in a statement that she was opposed to the bill’s Medicaid cuts and that the bill could weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
She cited a new estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that found the Medicaid program would lose more than $1 trillion from 2020 to 2036.
“The CBO’s analysis on the earlier version of the bill, incomplete though it is due to time constraints, confirms that this bill will have a substantially negative impact on the number of people covered by insurance,” she said.
The Maine Republican had been a likely “no” vote on the bill, as she said this weekend on “Face the Nation” that she was concerned about the bill and was leaning against it.
Cassidy and Graham released a revised version of the legislation Sunday night seeking to sway key holdouts by adding money to states such as Alaska, home of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and making changes to the bill’s insurance waivers.
It is not clear if any of the senators can be swayed at this point.
Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Rand Paul of Kentucky already have said they would vote against the bill, sponsored by four GOP senators: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Dean Heller of Nevada, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
Republicans need 50 votes to pass the overhaul bill, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote. With Collins, McCain and Paul publicly saying they would vote no, the bill has support from 49 senators at most.
McCain has problems with the process Republicans are using to approve the bill and Paul is angry that it doesn’t fully repeal Obamacare. Paul said Monday that he wants to get rid of the bill’s block grants.
Collins has repeatedly voted against measures to repeal or overhaul Obamacare.
The Senate Finance Committee on Monday is holding the lone hearing on the healthcare bill, which is considered the Republicans’ last effort to overhaul Obamacare, as reconciliation — the tool they are using to approve legislation with only a simple majority instead of the 60 votes typically needed to break a filibuster — expires on Sept. 30.
