On May 4, 2017, Republicans in Congress moved a huge step closer to their wish to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as “Obamacare.” The body voted 217 to 213 to adopt the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA).

As the five-minute voting period ended, members could be heard singing, “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye.”

Watch the debate and the vote here, via C-Span.

Next up: The Senate will debate and vote on the latest version of the AHCA. </s> WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) – Senators will be back on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to continue debate on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

Tuesday night, by a vote of 43-57 the Senate Republican plan to repeal and replace the health care law failed on a procedural vote.

The Senate adjourned but will return at 9:30 a.m. to resume debate and consideration of amendments to a Republican health care bill. The next series of votes is expected at 11:30 a.m.

The vote on that bill took place just hours after they decided, by the narrowest margin possible, to proceed with debates on health care.

“We’re now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare,” said President Donald Trump during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday’s debate will focus on the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the GOP plan that passed the House of Representatives in May.

Numerous amendments will now be offered that will dramatically change the nature of the House-passed legislation. Some amendments include a proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, while another could simply repeal the 2010 health care law in its entirety and provide Congress with two years to figure out a replacement health care plan.

Nine Republicans came out against Tuesday night’s amendment in the first of what is expected to be many versions of the bill headed to the Senate floor this week.

“Anyone who thinks this is over is sadly mistaken, there are many many Republicans who don’t like this bill who don’t want to vote for it, they’re under enormous pressure to vote for it,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY.

The House plan, which was rejected by the Senate, is the one that, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, would’ve resulted in 22 million fewer people with health care coverage by 2026. </s> The United States House of Representatives on Friday passed a budget measure that begins the process to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act 2010, better known as Obamacare, Reuters reported. The House voted 227-198 to draft a legislation by January 27 that will revoke the healthcare law enacted by President Barack Obama nearly seven years ago.

The US Senate had passed the resolution by a 58-51 vote on Thursday. Republicans hold a majority in both Houses of the US Congress. No Democrat supported Friday’s move, whereas nine Republicans voted against it.

The healthcare law was passed to expand insurance coverage to some 20 million people. It directed insurers to not turn down those who were already ill and asked them to slash medical charges to the sick and elderly. In the last few years, the US Congress has voted more than 60 times to repeal or alter Obamacare.

The campaign to have Obamacare dismantled has been met with concerns as Republicans are not ready with replacement provisions yet. House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “We have to step in before things get worse. This is nothing short of a rescue mission.”

US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday praised the vote on Twitter, saying, “The ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act will soon be history!” He had vowed to have the Act repealed during his presidential campaign. </s> WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, who for seven years have promised a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, took a major step on Thursday toward that goal, unveiling a bill to make deep cuts in Medicaid and end the law’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance.

The 142-page bill would create a new system of federal tax credits to help people buy health insurance, while offering states the ability to drop many of the benefits required by the Affordable Care Act, like maternity care, emergency services and mental health treatment.

But the measure landed in rough seas ahead of a vote that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, wants next week. Four conservative senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, announced that they would oppose it without changes — more than enough to bring it down.

“It does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs,” the four wrote in a joint statement. </s> WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS) — The Senate voted Tuesday in favor on a motion to proceed with debate on the Senate’s health care plan to effectively repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. On Tuesday night, the Senate Republican plan to repeal and replace the health care law failed on a procedural vote.

The Senate adjourned but will return on Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. to resume debate and consideration of amendments to the Republican health care bill. The next series of votes is expected at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.
• After 50 “no” votes on the motion to proceed to debate (including all Democrats plus two Republicans) and 50 “yes” votes from Republicans, Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie
• Sen. John McCain was welcomed back to Senate with standing ovation, votes “yes”
• Senate GOP’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, known as BCRA, fails in procedural vote, at about 9:30 p.m.

The first vote was intended to open debate on the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the GOP-sponsored Obamacare replacement plan that passed the House of Representatives in May.

Numerous amendments will now be offered that will dramatically change the nature of the House-passed legislation. Some amendments include a proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, while another could simply repeal the 2010 health care law in its entirety and provide Congress with two years to figure out a replacement health care plan.

President Donald Trump has publicly pressured Republicans to vote to proceed and find a way to replace Obamacare.

Read this story on the CBS News website for the full list of Tuesday updates while Senate was in session. </s> Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) arrives for a health care vote on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 26, 2017. — Reuters picWASHINGTON, July 27 — US Senate Republicans suffered a second stinging setback in as many days yesterday in their efforts to uproot Obamacare, when a plan to repeal the health care law, with no replacement at the ready, failed to advance in the chamber.

The washout has left Republicans — who only a day early rejoiced when the Senate agreed to proceed to a formal debate on health care — struggling to find consensus on how to fulfill President Donald Trump’s pledge to scrap the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Senate leaders have said they intend to pass a bill by the end of this week, but that path remained murky — and the outcome in doubt.

Seven Republicans joined Democrats in opposing yesterday’s proposal, which would have ended Obamacare’s insurance exchanges and its taxes on the wealthy; rolled back the expansion of Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and the disabled; and ended mandates compelling individuals to have insurance and for companies to provide it.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office had forecasted that 32 million Americans would become uninsured over the next decade should the bill become law.

The defeat came just hours after the Senate voted down a broader Republican plan to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s signature health care reforms.

It was a bleak set of outcomes for Republicans after a whirlwind session Tuesday at which Senator John McCain, recently diagnosed with brain cancer, earned a warm ovation as he returned to the Senate to cast key votes.

While Trump had applauded Republicans for finally moving to a debate that could lead to “truly great health care for the American people,” the moment of victory proved temporary.

Under pressure to emerge with tangible results, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was putting a variety of options forward.

“I know members in both parties have health care ideas they’d like to offer,” he said. “If you’ve got one, bring it to the floor.”

Frustration was setting in with some members including Senator Ben Sasse, who raked fellow Republicans over the coals for failing to follow through on their seven-year promise to dismantle Obamacare.

“Make no mistake: Today’s vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal,” he said in a statement.

“We still have a long, long way to go.”

One new approach in order to keep the effort afloat was gaining traction: a limited dismantling of Obamacare.

The so-called “skinny repeal” would ditch the provision that fines individuals for not having insurance and companies that don’t offer it. It also would eliminate a tax on medical-device manufacturers.

The Republican leadership does not expect the pared-down bill to become law. But should it pass the Senate, it could be used as a placeholder, a basis for negotiating broader legislation with the House of Representatives.

The approach drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who have warned that an Obamacare repeal would result in deep cuts to Medicaid and prohibitively high insurance premiums for people with pre-existing conditions.

“It’s a Trojan horse, designed to get the House and Senate into conference, where the hard right flank of the House Republicans, the Freedom Caucus, will demand full repeal, or something very close to it,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer warned.

“There’s no good way out of this,” he added.

The House passed its Obamacare repeal and replace bill in May, but it stalled in the Senate, which was intent on crafting its own version.

The two would need to be reconciled and a final bill passed by both chambers before it reaches the president’s desk.

But with deep fissures within the Republican Party, a failure to approve any health reform plan remained a possibility.

With the pressure building, the White House sounded vexed about Republicans’ powerlessness, especially since the party controls both chambers of Congress.

Trump is “hoping they’ll join him in pushing forward a lot of the policies that most of those people campaigned on, like repealing and replacing Obamacare,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Republicans need to “step up to commitments that they made during the campaign and since being elected”. — AFP </s> WASHINGTON — Republicans narrowly advanced their campaign to roll back the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, as the Senate voted by a slim margin to begin debating legislation to repeal and potentially replace large sections of the 2010 law signed by President Barack Obama.

But the partisan 51-50 vote — with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie — does not assure the success of the GOP’s seven-year quest to dismantle the sweeping law, often called Obamacare.

With health coverage for tens of millions of Americans at stake, it remained unclear Tuesday what kind of health care bill — if any — might emerge by the time a final Senate vote is held, possibly as early as Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has set up a series of votes this week on competing proposals to repeal much of Obamacare, or repeal and replace pieces of the law.

Tuesday’s procedural vote to kick off that process marks a victory for McConnell, who has been laboring for months behind closed doors to rally his divided caucus, and for President Donald Trump, who has been publicly calling out GOP senators to stick with the repeal push.

But to get to the vote, McConnell abandoned customary legislative process, foregoing public hearings and committee debate in a way almost never seen for major legislative proposals.

And he left Republican lawmakers with a series of legislative options — which polls show are also deeply unpopular with Americans — that would leave as many as 32 million more people without health coverage and weaken health protections for tens of millions more.

The GOP plans have been widely panned by independent analysts and vigorously opposed by every major patient advocacy group and every leading organization representing physicians, nurses and hospitals.

Opponents include the American Diabetes Association, the March of Dimes, the AARP, the American Medical Association, the American Lung Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Heart Association and the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against the motion.

Collins posted on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon that she voted against the motion to proceed with debate on the bill because “when dealing w/ a complex issue that affects millions of Americans & ⅙th of our economy, we must proceed carefully.”

“Making sweeping changes to the 50-year-old Medicaid program without a single Senate hearing is a mistake,” she tweeted. “We must work in a bipartisan way to to fix the ACA’s serious flaws.”

In a statement Tuesday, Maine’s junior senator, independent Angus King, called the legislation “misguided,” adding that any version of the bill “will hurt millions of people across the country and tens of thousands of hardworking people across Maine.”

“I’ve never seen a process like this before with no hearings and it will almost certainly produce a terrible bill that will drastically raise costs for people in Maine, put coverage out of reach for many others, and reduce Medicaid funding, causing states to choose between helping seniors or children or people with disabilities,” King said. “As the Senate advances with this bill, I will continue to support and protect people in Maine and work to find solutions that keep people covered and make health care more affordable.”

GOP leaders were aided by the dramatic return to the Capitol by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, after surgery last week and a diagnosis of brain cancer. He arrived in the chamber to cheers and a standing ovation from his colleagues.

As Republicans next move to crafting a final bill, one leading GOP option, favored by conservatives, is to simply repeal most major parts of Obamacare, and then try to pass a new health care law in the future.

Another idea, supported at one point by GOP leaders, would replace most of the law while at the same time dramatically scaling back federal funding of the Medicaid insurance program that covers some 74 million low-income, elderly and disabled Americans.

GOP centrists have complained both of those versions would leave too many Americans without insurance, and have urged McConnell to start the process over, working on a bipartisan approach that will protect those covered under Obamacare.

So far, none of these approaches has garnered the necessary 50 votes from the Republicans’ 52-seat Senate majority.

The lack of GOP consensus prompted Senate Republican leaders to float a new idea Tuesday — a far more limited repeal bill that would target the most unpopular parts of Obamacare, including its insurance mandates.

That plan — dubbed “skinny repeal” — would eliminate only a medical device tax established by Obamacare and two mandates requiring Americans to have coverage and requiring large employers to offer health benefits.

The approach would fall far short of what Republicans have been promising for years.

If it passes, Senate Republicans could at least send something to a conference committee where lawmakers could work out a compromise with a sweeping repeal bill passed by House Republicans in May, giving them yet another shot at unwinding Obamacare.

That would all have to be done without Democrats, who remain fiercely opposed to the GOP repeal push and voted together Tuesday to try to block the beginning of Senate debate.

The skinny repeal plan risks major disruptions to the nation’s insurance markets, as the lack of any insurance mandate could free Americans to buy health insurance only when they get sick, driving up costs.

But it would leave in place other critical parts of the 2010 law, including hundreds of billions of dollars of federal aid to state Medicaid programs and insurance subsidies that help low- and moderate-income Americans

That assistance is credited with helping extend coverage to more than 20 million previously uninsured Americans.

Also untouched would be landmark rules established by Obamacare that require insurers to cover a basic set of benefits and prohibits health plans from discriminating against Americans with preexisting medical conditions.

It remains unclear whether House Republicans would agree to this more limited repeal plan.

But with centrist and conservative GOP senators in deep disagreement, the skinny repeal may be all McConnell can pass.

The repeal-only plan — which is favored by the most conservative GOP senators — would leave an estimated 32 million more people without health coverage over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO.

It is opposed by multiple centrist GOP senators.

The alternative proposed by McConnell that repeals and replaces major parts of the law while also dramatically scaling back federal Medicaid assistance is only slightly less disruptive, CBO analysts have concluded.

The McConnell proposal, which has drawn fire from both centrist and conservative Republicans, would leave 22 million more Americans without insurance by 2026.

That plan would be most devastating to the Medicaid safety net, which currently covers some 70 million poor Americans, including children. Federal Medicaid funding would be reduced by more than a third over the next two decades.

And while CBO concluded the “repeal-and-replace” plan could lower premiums for some consumers, it would likely put health insurance out of reach for older and sicker Americans who could be forced to pay larger deductibles or higher premiums than under the current law.

Still unclear is the effect of yet other GOP proposals that could come up for votes in coming days, including one by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to allow health insurers to sell skimpier plans that do not include basic benefits such as prescription drugs, maternity care and mental health and substance abuse services.

The Cruz proposal is widely expected to make health coverage more expensive for sick Americans who need to buy more extensive health coverage and has been panned by health insurers as “unworkable.”

But McConnell elected to proceed with voting Tuesday before CBO had an opportunity to assess the potential impact of Cruz’s proposal. </s> The US House of Representatives has taken the first step toward demolishing President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare.Republicans passed a budget measure to introduce a bill - which Democrats cannot block - to roll back the law.But members of both parties in Congress are concerned about a lack of replacement for Obamacare.The political showdown raises a big question mark over medical coverage for more than 20 million Americans.The measure passed in the House nearly on a party-line vote, 227-198, delivering a blow to President Obama's legacy a week before he leaves office.It instructs four committees on Capitol Hill to draft repeal legislation by 27 January.The Senate passed the resolution by 51-48 on Thursday.Can Obamacare be repealed?US patients await Obamacare's fate"By taking the first step toward repealing Obamacare, we are closer to giving Americans relief from the problems this law has caused," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement following the vote."This resolution gives us the tools we need for a step-by-step approach to fix these problems and put Americans back in control of their health care."Obamacare has provided healthcare subsidies and medical coverage for millions who are not covered through work.It has banned insurers from refusing coverage to people who are already ill, and curbed medical charges to the sick and elderly.But the law has been rocked by rising premiums, large fees and national insurers exiting the marketplaces.Egged on by Donald Trump, Republicans have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act but conservatives have not yet agreed on a new plan. President-elect Donald J. Trump demanded on Tuesday that Congress immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass another health law quickly. His remarks put Republicans in the nearly impossible position of having only weeks to replace a health law that took nearly two years to pass. “We have to get to business,” Mr. Trump told The New York Times in a telephone interview. “Obamacare has been a catastrophic event.” U.S. USA America "united States" Law Congress Republican Promise Obamacare Insurance "Health Insurance" poverty Poor Rich Wealth Lies Truth Plan "Health Insurance Plan" "American Dream" States Speech Meeting Experiment Lawyer health healthy hospital "travel insurance" doctor emergency savings salary family "health savings account" budget debt 2017 2018 future elite agenda news media entertainment benefit account sick sickness "private healthcare" surgery "elite nwo agenda" cancer charityMr. Trump appeared to be unclear both about the timing of already scheduled votes in Congress and about the difficulty of his demand — a repeal vote “probably some time next week” and a replacement “very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.” As their first major act of the new Congress, Republicans rushed approval of a budget resolution this week that sets up a framework for repealing Obamacare, but what exactly to replace it with is still a puzzle Republicans are piecing together.House Speaker Paul Ryan, a college freshman who won't shut up about how you really should read more Ayn Rand books, is in a bit of a pickle right now. On the one hand, he and his fellow Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, setting the stage for the Affordable Care Act repeal that they've promised to the point of fetishization for the last six-plus years. On the other hand, after six-plus years, they still have no idea what the hell they're going to do instead! (Hope you got all your serious illness and major injuries out of the way in 2016, friend.) As Republicans try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they should be reminded every day that 36,000— Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), in a tweet, Jan. 12, 2017With the fate of the Affordable Care Act hanging in the balance, the rhetorical warfare is only going to get worse. Earlier this week, we looked at an exaggerated GOP claim about Obamacare premiums. </s> After the Senate's attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act collapsed Monday, Republican leaders immediately began talking about repealing the health care law in hopes of coming up with a replacement later.

The plan is to take up the same repeal bill that passed the House and Senate in 2015 and was vetoed by President Obama. And then take the next two years to craft a replacement health plan.

President Trump tweeted his support of the strategy shortly after two Republican senators withdrew their support of the pending Senate bill: "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!"

"The Senate will take up and vote on a repeal of Obamacare combined with a stable two-year transition period," he said on the Senate floor. "President Trump will sign it now."

It's not a new idea.

After President Trump was elected in November, Republicans in Congress consider the so-called "repeal and delay" strategy and rejected it. Here's why:

1. The Cost Of Insurance Premiums Would Skyrocket

While McConnell and Trump call this plan a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act, it would in fact leave many parts of the law in place. That's because under Senate rules, they can only repeal the parts of the law that have a budget or tax impact.

The law's individual mandate that everyone, healthy or sick, to buy insurance would disappear. But the rule that insurers must write policies for anyone, no matter their health status, would stay.

"Insurers would have to take people with pre-existing conditions, but the the sense is that healthy people without that mandate wouldn't sign up," says Larry Levitt, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research organization. "So insurers, with that kinds of uncertainty, would immediately raise rates."

The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the 2015 legislation in January and said that if it were to pass, insurance premiums would rise 20 percent to 25 percent in the first year. If McConnell's plan works, that means 2018.

Those high prices would drive millions of people out of the insurance market.

The same CBO report estimates that the number of people without insurance would increase by 18 million in the first year after a law similar to the 2015 legislation passes.

That's almost the same number of people who gained insurance in the seven years since the Affordable Care Act passed.

About 10 million people would lose coverage because they'd drop their individual plans, and another 5 million would be dropped from the Medicaid rolls. Another 3 million would lose their employer-provided coverage, CBO says.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., has already said she won't support the repeal effort because of the threats it poses to people's coverage.

"I did not come to Washington to hurt people," she said in a statement Tuesday morning. "I have serious concerns about how we continue to provide affordable care to those who have benefited from West Virginia's decision to expand Medicaid."

Rising rates and fewer people in the market are the two ingredients for the mythical and much-invoked "death spiral." That's when rates rise so much that nobody can afford insurance and the entire market collapses.

And that's what the Republican's proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, would do, according to multiple health-care analysts.

Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consulting firm, says a repeal and delay "would just cause more market calamity without a known replacement."

And then there's the question of what would replace Obamacare.

Charles Gaba, who runs the AcaSignups.net website that tracks ACA enrollment numbers, doubts congressional Republicans will come up with anything better:

"These guys have had eight years to come up with their 'alternative/replacement' plan, clearly with nothing to show for it," he wrote on his web site. "Does anyone honestly think that they'd actually come up with anything useful given one more year?"
The American Health Care Act of 2017, an attempt to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, fails passage in the United States Senate.