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- 07/26/2017

One step forward, one step behind for Republicans on Obamacare

Pharma Horizon

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Senate Republicans on Tuesday arrowly advanced their campaign to re-rewrite the Affordable Care Act, something they achieved only after the dramatic return of Senator John McCain, who was diagnosed last week with brain cancer.

However the vote passed with a narrow 51-50 with Vice President Mike Pence  breaking a tied and this defintely does not ensure the success of the GOP’s seven-year quest to dismantle the sweeping law, widely known as Obamacare.

The procedural vote allows the Senate to open debate on repealing and replacing the ACA, popularly known as Obamacare, but still remains unclear exactly what legislation they will be voting on.

The fact that a vote simply to open debate was seen as a victory for the Republicans is a measure of how difficult the GOP has found it to overhaul Barack Obama’s healthcare law, which extended health insurance to nearly 20 million more people.

 

Trump praised the Senate vote to move to debate as a “big step” during a news conference at the White House. “We’re going to give you great healthcare,” the president said, adding that Republicans would, “over the next week or two, come up with a plan.”

But hours later, the Senate decisively rejected a Republican proposal to repeal-and-replace Obamacare, a sign of the chaos expected to envelop Capitol Hill as GOP leaders work to find a plan their conference can agree to.

Wednesday morning, floor debate on the legislation to overhaul the Affordable Care Act will continue, even though there aren’t any guarantees the votes are there to eventually pass it — and it’s unclear what a final bill will look like.

 

Read further: Los Angels Times , The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times