Republican senator scuppers Trump healthcare bill
Members of a disability rights group have disrupted a Senate finance committee hearing on a bill to end Obamacare.
But as arrests were made Republican Senator Susan Collins appears to have doomed her own party’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act by refusing to give it her support.
“There are many problems in the Affordable Care Act that do need to be fixed. However, it was clear to me that the Graham-Cassidy bill was not the answer,” explained Senator Susan Collins.
Collins has joined several other moderate Republicans including John McCain in objecting to the Graham-Cassidy bill which leaves millions of Americans without coverage and weakens protection for people with pre-existing conditions. Collins and McCain, who voted against the last major repeal effort in July, have both advocated for a bipartisan solution to fixing the parts of Obamacare that do not function well.
With only a 52 to 48 Republican senate majority a September 30 deadline for a vote looks impossible.
A new CBS poll released on Monday (Sept 25) said that a majority of Americans, or 52 percent, disapprove of the Graham-Cassidy bill, while 20 percent approve. The poll was taken between Sept. 21 and 24.