Lindsey Graham: On health care, it's 'time for a new approach'

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last updated 18 July 2017

The Republicans' latest stab at a health-care bill once again doesn't have enough votes to pass, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday night that it's "time for a new approach" when it comes to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) announced together that they will not support the current version of the bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, joining Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in their opposition. Not long after, Graham tweeted that the "best hope for innovative health care" involves "getting money and power out of Washington and returning it to the states."

ObamaCare embraces a "one-size-fits-all approach," he continued, before touting his own proposal, which he put together with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). "Graham-Cassidy is the conservative approach to solving the problems ObamaCare created," he said. His proposal calls for repealing the individual and employer mandates instituted under ObamaCare, and retaining the requirements covering pre-existing conditions. The medical device tax would be eliminated, but other taxes would stay, and federal dollars spent on health insurance would be block-granted to the states. "Like no two patients are the same, no two states' health-care needs are the same," Graham said. "Solution that works in California may not work in Virginia." Graham never came out and said he was a "no" vote on the Senate GOP health-care bill, and now that there aren't enough votes for it to pass, he doesn't have to.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.