Congressional Republicans have been working tirelessly to replace the Affordable Care Act (Aca) otherwise known as Obamacare for seven years. This year since Donald Trump entered the Oval Office; Republicans have likely made history through their failure to pass any health care bills, starting with the House Republicans' failure to get their American Health Care Act (AHCA) pass.
There have also been problems that Senate Republicans had with their Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). As a side note, the second attempt to pass the AHCA was "successful" but died in the Senate because it was incoherent, causing Senate conservatives to rewrite their own bill.
Republicans traumatized by legislative failures
Since the final failures last Tuesday, President Trump gave the Senate Republicans a pep-talk at the White House telling them to not quit and keep trying to repeal and replace Obamacare. But there are hints that last week was the last attempt, as there is no sense that Republicans have a taste for it.
Lisa Desjardins of PBS Newshour said last Tuesday that at least one Republican senator told her they were exhausted. But she also said that according to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX.) he was expecting to take a vote on repeal before the end of the week but this did not happen.
McConnell under pressure
Since the defeat, there's no sense that another vote will change anything.
The only thing Republican leaders have been able to do is to make demands for party members to vote for a replace and/or repeal. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI.) said last week that he no longer had any confidence in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Much of the rhetoric appeared to be an impulse response from Republicans who also have a sense that they cannot do anything about Obamacare but to begin to work in a bipartisan manner.
It's been expressed by Republicans that they are not interested in working with Democrats.
This was verified by McConnell when he seemed re-energized after meeting with President Trump on Wednesday who told the Senate Republicans to keep trying. It was opined recently that with House Republicans falling to President Trump's style of legislation that the Senate would soon follow.
This is likely if Republicans decide to ignore their constituents or the demands of their states just to pass the BCRA or even worse, repeal the current ACA. There are now signs that Republicans would begin to hold hearings with Democrats to try and stabilize the insurance markets under Obamacare.
