Republican replacement for Obamacare ‘appears dead’

The Republican push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, appears to have collapsed after Senator Susan Collins of Maine announced that she would not be voting for the bill.

“Collins joined Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona in pledging to vote against the bill, leaving only 49 votes,” says The Guardian. “At least 50 Republican senators would be needed for the bill to pass with the aid of the casting vote of Mike Pence, the vice-president.”

Collins made the announcement after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said millions of people would be left without insurance if the bill was successful.

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“Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame,” Collins said, “especially when the actual bill is a moving target.”

According to The New York Times, “the demise of the latest repeal push means that Republicans are now all but certain to conclude Trump’s first year in office without fulfilling one of their central promises, which the president and lawmakers had hoped to deliver on quickly after Trump took office”.