The four Senate sponsors of an Obamacare overhaul bill said it was only a matter of time before their bill, which was pulled Tuesday because of lack of support, would become law and replace Obamacare.
The four Republicans — Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Dean Heller of Nevada — blamed process and timing for the bill’s defeat. The bill was considered the last shot to repeal Obamacare by the end of the month when the GOP’s authority to pass a health bill with only 51 votes expires.
“Due to circumstances under our control, and not under our control, the process and timing of this vote did not line up this time,” the senators said in a joint statement Tuesday. “However, our idea of sending the power and money to the states clearly resounded with our colleagues.”
The bill was shelved after three Republican senators publicly opposed it, with several more on the fence. Republicans could afford to lose only two votes, assuming Vice President Mike Pence would cast a tie-breaking vote, and win passage.
The Obamacare overhaul bill was introduced less than two weeks ago. It sought to cut Obamacare funding and redistribute it to states through block grants and put a cap on all Medicaid funding based on the number of beneficiaries in a state.
The senators said they were heartened that their colleagues were more upset with the process used to advance the bill than the policy itself.
They pointed to a Tuesday statement from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who said senators had far too little time to vote on the bill that was reintroduced Sunday night. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., opposed the bill because of concerns about the process as well.
Republicans were angling for a vote by Sept. 30, when the authority to pass a bill with 51 votes expired.
“The most frequent frustration we heard from our colleagues ranging from Senator McCain to Senator Murkowski was that time and process were the biggest obstacles to their support,” the statement said. “There is no doubt about their commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and no doubt about their support of local control.”
However, several other senators were concerned about the underlying policy in the bill, albeit for different reasons.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was upset that the state waivers for Obamacare’s insurance regulations did not go far enough.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, opposed the bill because of concerns about the Medicaid cuts and eroding protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was an early opponent of the bill because it did not repeal enough of Obamacare. He said Monday that he wanted to get rid of the law’s block grants, the focal point of the bill.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office didn’t have enough time to come up with a score on the bill as a result of the hurried schedule. However, it did put out a preliminary analysis that found it would cut $1 trillion from Medicaid by 2036 and estimated that millions of people would go with less care because of state waivers of Obamacare’s insurance regulations.
