Effort to Pass Health Bill in Senate Collapses
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday night that the latest plans to repeal and replace Obamacare did not have enough votes to pass. The dramatic and simultaneous announcement from Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah means McConnell officially does not have the votes to even begin debate on his legislation to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.
“Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,” McConnell said in a statement. McConnell’s new plan may be to bring up a bill that passed the Senate in December 2015 by a 52-47 vote and amounted to a nearly complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The new version of the 2015 plan will likely delay the repeal of the Affordable Care Act by as much as three years, in order to give Congress time to come up with a replacement plan before the repeal goes into effect.
President Donald Trump pointed the finger at Democrats and a “few Republicans” after Monday night’s collapse of Republicans’ Senate health care bill. “We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!” Trump tweeted this morning.
On Monday night, Trump suggested Republicans first repeal and then replace ObamaCare. “Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate,” he said. “Dems will join in!”
Trump then raised the possibility of letting ObamaCare fail and then putting together a healthcare plan. “As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!” Trump tweeted.