On Wednesday, the Senate rejected the bill that would have repealed the major pieces of the Affordable care act (also known as Obamacare) without any replacement, reported by CNN. The bill was proposed to the Senate by the Republican lawmakers.
Seven senators joined with Democrats to reject the bill
The bill was rejected by seven Republican senators along with Democrats. 45 out of 55 votes were in the favor of rejections. Senators who opposed the bill are John McCain (Arizona), Shelly Moore (West Virginia), Dean Heller (Nevada), Lamar Alexandra (Tennessee), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), and Susan Collins (Maine).
But in 2015, except Susan Collins of Maine, all the senators voted to repeal major parts of Obamacare without replacement. The same identical measure was passed to Barack Obama by the Senate and a Republican-controlled House but he rejected the bill. GOP lawmakers knew it before that he would be vetoed the law. Republicans were trying for the enactment of Obamacare but a rejection of bill showed that a direct repeal of the law is not feasible within GOP.
Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader said that there will no more amendments on health care by the Democrats until they won't be sure how will be the final bill. "I'm for Repeal and Replace and we're going to continue to work on a replacement," Rob Portman of Ohio said.
The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) estimated that around 32 million individuals would not be sure about the health insurance over the next 10 years. The CBO also added that 75% of the America would live in the places where no insurers participating in the individual market by 2016, CNN reported.
What is 'skinny repeal'?
Now, the main aim of the Majority Leader Mitch McConnel is to agree the 50 Republicans finalize the bill.
If he will be successful to get 50 votes then he can again send the bill to the White house conference to repeal and replace, where Republicans would produce a larger repeal-and-replace measure later.
The 2010 health care law would be replaced by the newly emerged plan. After the Senate's debate to dismantle the Obamacare the results of voting came to repeal it.
The plan is so called "skinny repeal" would knock down the Affordable Care Act. It would eliminate the employer mandate as well as some of the taxes but would not make any changes in the Medicaid program for the poor.
At the rally in Ohio, President Trump said that Republican senators will face problems who did not vote to repeal and replace Obamacare.
