Senate Republicans late Wednesday moved to revive legislation to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare, offering changes to the bill in a two-hour meeting with moderate and conservative holdouts that lawmakers said brought them closer to consensus.
“We had some great discussions,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told the Washington Examiner. “I’m entirely optimistic.”
Lee is among the Republican lawmakers who refused to support a motion to proceed to a debate on the repeal and replace bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Lee wants language to ensure lower premiums by allowing health insurers to offer plans outside of the Obamacare mandates and in a separate pool from high-risk consumers.
Another “no” on the motion to proceed, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she remains undecided but hopeful.
“I am encouraged by the level of discussion that we had,” Murkowski said.
Republican leaders are looking for ways to lure in moderates like Murkowski and Shelly Moore Capito, of West Virginia, who fear BCRA’s reduction in Medicaid growth will hurt their states. They are offering additional Medicaid funding for Alaska, West Virginia and other Medicaid-dependent states, but the offer has not flipped any “no” votes yet.
The meeting, involving more than a dozen GOP lawmakers, was interrupted by the news that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was diagnosed with a brain cancer.
“We prayed,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told reporters. “It was very emotional, almost kind of stunned disbelief for a minute.” Hoeven said the group asked Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., a former minister, “to lead us in prayer.”
McCain’s health status further muddles the fate of the bill, because it takes away, at least for now, one of the 52 Senate GOP votes in play. Republicans need at least 50 to advance the bill, and Vice President Mike Pence would break the tie in the event of a 50-50 vote.
McCain has not indicated when he might return to the Senate and is faced with the possibility of chemotherapy and radiation to treat his cancer.
“Obviously, I think more people are worried about his health than thinking about the math,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “But you understand the math. Obviously it makes things difficult.”
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is promising a vote early next week on proceeding to a bill, but it could be one of two options.
Republican leaders want the BCRA to advance, but they are threatening Republicans with a 2015 alternative bill that repeals most of Obamacare without a replacement. All but one Republican voted for it in 2015, in part because it faced a certain veto from former President Barack Obama and would never be enacted.
Many GOP lawmakers would oppose a straight repeal vote now because it could well become law. But they are eager to avoid a contradictory and politically perilous vote on the measure.
Murkowski said she would oppose proceeding on a bill to repeal Obamacare without a replacement, but suggested the GOP leadership has not signaled which measure would be taken up next week.
“We don’t have a clear determination as to what it is we are voting for,” Murkowski said.
Wednesday night’s meeting marked a kind of reset for the healthcare debate in the Senate, which essentially imploded earlier in the week when several senators, including Lee, announced their opposition, killing an effort to bring the BCRA to the floor.
Following a White House meeting Wednesday with President Trump, the holdouts are back at the table, and leadership is eager to make a deal.
Hoeven said “everyone is throwing out ideas, which is good from the standpoint that people are really hashing through some things so hopefully we are making some progress.”
