The senator who sunk the GOP health bill was the first lawmaker to formally propose repealing ObamaCare

Jerry Moran.
(Image credit: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) announced Monday evening they would vote against the Senate GOP's plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Combined with "no" votes from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Monday's announcements sunk the bill.

Intriguingly, as McClatchy reports, Moran was the first lawmaker to formally propose nixing ObamaCare some seven years ago. In his statement on the BCRA, Moran maintained he still supports that plan. "There are serious problems with ObamaCare," he said, "and my goal remains what it has been for a long time: to repeal and replace it."

Moran objects to the BCRA on the grounds that it "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address health care's rising costs," as well as the fact that the bill was spawned via a "closed-door process."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.