If a bill that would repeal portions of Obamacare fails in a planned Senate vote early next week, the effort would not be the end of the road for lawmakers, who would be left with the responsibility of rebooting Obamacare's exchanges so they aren't deeply damaged during an election year.
After Republicans couldn't reach a consensus on a bill that would have repealed parts of Obamacare and replaced it with other provisions, they proposed dusting off a bill they had passed in 2015 and voting on it again now that they had a president who would sign it into law rather than veto it. Early Tuesday, however, enough Republicans opposed beginning debate on the bill to stop the bill from advancing, but Senate leaders said they still planned to move forward on a vote on whether to debate the legislation.
If the bill fails as expected, lawmakers could return to debating the repeal and replace bill or work with Democrats to fix the Obamacare exchanges.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell previously warned Republicans that if they failed to reach an agreement they would have to work with Democrats to fix the healthcare law, and he reiterated that position Tuesday.
"You'll have to look at our committee chairmen and our ranking members," McConnell said, referring to the GOP and Democratic leaders of each committee. "My suspicion is there will be hearings about the crisis that we have, and we'll have to see what the way forward is."
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01.19.2025