Senator John McCain.REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
On January 10, just days before his inauguration, President Donald Trump told The New York Times that Republicans would have Obamacare repealed “probably sometime next week.”
Now, as September comes to a close, Obamacare is still the law of the land (though Trump is working to undermine that) and Republicans are no closer to overhauling their healthcare law than they were when Trump took office.
The expiration of the 2017 budget reconciliation rules, which allowed the GOP to pass a bill repealing and replacing Obamacare without being subject to a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, it will likely be months before the party can attempt a repeal again.
The formal process all started back in March, with the release of the American Health Care Act from the House GOP leadership. The drama featured not one, but two failed votes spanning both chambers of Congress. There were seven different plans, a slew of edits, and many more ideas thrown around.
Here’s a breakdown of every major plan from Republicans to repeal the law, and the ultimate fate:
The most drama came from the Senate, as John McCain’s momentous thumbs down brought down the “skinny repeal” bill and seemed to kill the Obamacare repeal effort (and, let’s be honest, the Graham-Cassidy push was more of a sputtering epilogue than an honest threat to pass).
Just because McCain produced the drama, doesn’t mean he was the only senator to oppose one of the various ideas put forth by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Republican senators from across the party’s ideological spectrum took issue with the plans at various points. In all, 13 of the 52 GOP senators said they would vote against a healthcare bill at some point.
Here’s the breakdown of Republican defectors for each Senate bill:
This does not mean, however, that the Obamacare repeal effort is dead.
The GOP can include reconciliation instructions in upcoming budgets, meaning the next attempt to dismantle President Obama’s signature achievement could come in just a few months.
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