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July 27, 2017 at 03:56 PM
Sen. John McCain is part of a group of Senate Republicans that’s fighting a ‘skinny’ Affordable Care Act change proposal that could come to the Senate floor sometime tonight.
The Senate has been debating amendments to a preliminary version of the legislation, but, so far, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not posted the text of the final version of the main part of the bill.
(Related: Some GOP Senators Cast Mixed ACA Change Bill Votes)
The final version will take the form of an amendment that would replace the current of H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act bill. The House passed that Affordable Care Act change bill 217-213 on May 4. The final version will probably be a very “skinny” amendment that would simply repeal some of the most controversial provisions in the Affordable Care Act, such as the individual coverage mandate and the employer coverage offer mandate, according to press reports.
Like to live video of the Senate floor action is available here. Senators were supposed to be voting on amendments to the Affordable Care Act change bill but now appear to be stalling, by taking time to make general comments about why the support or oppose the change efforts.
McCain, an Arizona Republican who returned to the Senate after getting surgery for a blood clot over his eye, and being diagnosed with brain cancer, appeared this afternoon at a press conference with three Senate Republican colleagues to express horror at the idea of a skinny Affordable Care Act change bill actually becoming law.
McCain and the other senators — Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — argued that the skinny bill would not really repeal much of the Affordable Care Act and would not replace any of it.
“I’m not voting for a bill that’s horrible policy and horrible politics just because we have to get something done,” Graham said. “I’m not voting for a pig in a poke.”
Graham later called the idea of letting the skinny bill become law “politically the dumbest thing in history.”
Letting the skinny bill become law on its own would destroy the individual health insurance market, Graham said.
