The latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) fizzled out on Tuesday when Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate cancelled a vote after it became apparent they did not have the numbers needed for passage.
GOP Senators Rand Paul (Ken.), John McCain (Ariz.), and Susan Collins (Maine), citing various reasons, all signaled they could not support the Graham-Cassidy repeal-and-replace bill; those three votes together with the 48 Democrats uniformly opposed to Graham-Cassidy meant the measure was legislatively dead.
Tuesday’s non-vote followed a steady drumbeat of opposition to Graham-Cassidy from just about every part of the healthcare sector. MHA joined regional and national hospital groups, physician organizations, health insurers, and disease fighting associations, among many others in arguing that the Republican bill would raise healthcare costs, result in more uninsured, and run counter to bipartisan efforts that had recently been started to fix problems with the ACA.
On Monday, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) held a forum in Boston with healthcare interests opposing Graham-Cassidy. Among those voicing opposition to the Republican plan were Massachusetts General Hospital President Peter Slavin, M.D., Boston Children’s Hospital President & CEO Sandra Fenwick, and MHA’s V.P. of Government Advocacy Mike Sroczynski.