Late Thursday night, the Senate gathered to take a vote on the “skinny repeal” bill, which would repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The Senate introduced the “skinny bill,” now called the Health Care Freedom Act, and took a vote at midnight. Their decision came shortly after 1 a.m.
The bill needed a majority to pass but failed with a 51 to 49 vote. Had the vote gone 50-50, the decision would have been left to Vice President Mike Pence.
Three of the votes against the bill came from Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain, who surprised his party by voting to eliminate the proposed bill.
The new bill was a simplified version of the ACA. It was only eight pages long and included measures to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood, allow states to opt out of certain provisions in ACA, and eliminate the rule that requires large employers to offer company insurance plans.
President Donald Trump expressed his disappointment with the results of the vote, taking to Twitter to say: “3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!”
This marks the third failed attempt at repealing Obamacare by the GOP.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the repeals in the “skinny bill” would have resulted in 16 million people losing their healthcare by 2026 and insurance premiums increasing by 20 percent.
