Senate Republicans Say They Will Not Vote on Health Bill
Senate Republicans have officially stated that they will not vote on the Graham-Cassidy bill for the alteration of the Affordable Care Act, signaling the end of the last attempt to meet the promise of the Trump administration. Republican leaders would have been short of the number of votes necessary to pass the repeal proposal. Thirteen lawmakers across 12 separate states have resisted at least one of the five past efforts to repeal the ACA since the initiation of the Trump administration. The next vote to take place will likely be on the tax code overhaul, another Republican target. Democrats’ reaction to the news was to encourage the new opening of bipartisan negotiations for health insurance market stabilization, which had been put aside in favor of the repeal proposal. The decision not to vote may be the final nail in the coffin for the battle over health insurance in the US, a long debate that will likely be shelved for some time. However, there will likely be a revival of the discussion in the 2018 midterm elections, particularly as premiums are due to increase next year. The bill was due to take the regular funding for insurance subsidies on a state level, as well as the expansion of Medicaid, and to change the funding to a block grant. The bill would have lowered the spending on Medicaid by $1 trillion over a 10-year period, and putting millions of beneficiaries out of insurance. Democrats are hoping to pass the Alexander-Murray stabilization package which would send money for subsidies currently given to insurance companies as a reimbursement for lowering out-of-pocket costs for low-income citizens, and giving states more leeway to reform their insurance markets. The bill may prove unpopular with Republicans, who view the payments as a “bailout”.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Tuesday officially abandoned the latest plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, shelving a showdown vote on the measure and effectively admitting defeat in their last-gasp drive to fulfill a core promise of President Trump and Republican lawmakers.

The decision came less than 24 hours after a pivotal Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, declared her opposition to the repeal proposal, all but ensuring that Republican leaders would be short of the votes they needed.

“We haven’t given up on changing the American health care system,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said after a lunchtime meeting of Republican senators. “We are not going to be able to do that this week, but it still lies ahead of us, and we haven’t given up on that.”

Mr. McConnell said Republicans would move on to their next big legislative goal: overhauling the tax code, a feat that has not been accomplished since 1986.