Latest attempt to repeal Obamacare approaching zero-hour

Sept. 20--WASHINGTON -- The White House and Senate leaders are trying to beat the clock to pass a last-ditch GOP bill nixing key parts of Obamacare and creating block grants for states to implement their own health care plans.

But the measure sponsored by GOP Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana still may not have the 50 votes it needs to pass under reconciliation rules before the Sept. 30 deadline.

"We know how this movie ends if we don't change: we're going to have a single-payer health care system in this country that's going to bust the budget, and we are going to start rationing care like you've never seen," Graham said, referring to the Medicaid for All bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) earlier this month, which is backed by several Democrats including Bay State Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.

The Graham-Cassidy bill would eliminate the individual and employer health care mandate, end the Medicaid expansion, and cut subsidies to lower health care costs. It also waives Obamacare provisions that require coverage of pre-existing conditions and essential health benefits such as emergency services, maternity care, and substance abuse services.

But it would leave in place some Obamacare taxes that would fund state block grants.

Vice President Mike Pence returned to Washington from the United Nations General Assembly to meet with GOP lawmakers at the Capitol to underscore White House support for the bill.

"We think the American people need this," Pence told reporters.

Sen. Rand Paul, (R-Ky.), opposes the bill because it doesn't fully repeal and replace Obamacare. GOP Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine -- all of whom voted against the first Republican effort to repeal parts of Obamacare -- are undecided, although McCain indicated that he may "reluctantly" back the new effort.

Gov. Charlie Baker joined a bipartisan group of nine other governors in a letter urging lawmakers to reject the bill, calling instead for "bipartisan efforts to bring stability and affordability to our insurance markets." But House Speaker Paul Ryan declared such efforts to shore up the marketplaces off the table.

Democratic Senate Leader Charles Schumer, who recently worked with President Trump on bipartisan efforts to raise the debt ceiling and address DACA recipients, said the GOP health care bill puts future cross-aisle efforts in peril.

"We have seen some very, very hopeful sprouts of bipartisanship in the last month," Schumer said. "Going back to this Trumpcare 2, Graham-Cassidy, would shut down that bipartisanship that Americans yearns for."

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