Senate GOP Wins Vote To Debate Health Care, Then Loses Vote On ACA Replacement Bill

On July 25, 2017, the United States Senate began its long-awaited debate on repealing the Affordable Care Act. At around 2 in the afternoon, Senate Majority Leader McConnell called up a motion to proceed on consideration of the American Health Care Act, which the House of Representatives had passed on May 4, with a 217 to 213 vote. A motion to proceed on a budget reconciliation bill needs only to pass by a bare majority, but the Republicans hold only 52 of the chamber’s 100 votes, and Republican Senators Collins (ME) and Murkowski (AK) voted against proceeding. What’s Happened So Far There was high drama as Senator McCain (R-AZ), who had surgery for a blood clot and was diagnosed with brain cancer the week before, arrived to vote yes. Senator Johnson (R-WI) huddled with Senate leadership for some time before casting a yes vote to bring the tally to 50 to 50, with protesters in the gallery shouting “Kill the bill, don’t kill us” and “Shame” until they were taken away. With the vote evenly divided at 50 to 50, Vice President Pence, the President of the Senate, cast the deciding vote and the motion to proceed succeeded. After an emotional speech by Senator McCain calling on the Senate to regain its stature as a deliberative body, Speaker McConnell moved to amend the House bill to substitute amendment 267. This was basically the Senate’s Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, which was in turn the repeal and delay bill that was passed by the Senate in 2015 with a fe...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage abortion coverage ACA repeal and replace employer mandate individual mandate Planned Parenthood Source Type: blogs