Via The Hill:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced on Friday that he will vote against the latest GOP effort to repeal ObamaCare, potentially dooming the legislation.
“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal. I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried,” he said in a statement, referring to the legislation spearheaded by GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C) and Bill Cassidy (La.).
Sen. Rand Paul is a “no” and Sen. Susan Collins is a lean “no”. Not sure where Lisa Murkowski ends up.
Meanwhile, the Brookings Institute weighs in:
A new report from the Brookings Institute estimates that 21 million people will lose their health insurance by 2026 under Senate Republicans’ latest bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The report cautions that it’s a very conservative estimate that doesn’t take into account the bill’s per-capita Medicaid caps and the individual market turmoil the plan would likely create. The true number of uninsured people, the authors note, is likely much higher.
Because the Graham-Cassidy bill would repeal Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates, but retain the rule requiring insurers to cover everyone regardless of their health status, Brookings expects that only sick people who need insurance will purchase it, driving the price sky high for them and everyone else left in the shrinking risk pool. Those high prices will price many people out of the market entirely.
[…]
After 2026, the losses would become far more severe, with more than 30 million people losing insurance “because of the additional changes to the Medicaid program under this legislation.”
Those are some really bad numbers. Which makes sense since Graham-Cassidy is a really bad bill that Republicans keep LYING about. It makes you wonder what their plan is if the bill passes? Tell people who lose their health insurance or are charged more for preexisting conditions that they’re simply imagining things?
There really ought to be more Lean Nos. Capito got commitments to make sure that opioid addiction services were still included to the last round or two of this thing and that is all gone. Frankly, if they are working so hard to buy Murkowski’s vote, coupled with all of the other carve outs they are doing to buy votes it is a surprise there are not more showy indecideds.