GOP's Last Ditch Effort to Repeal and Replace Obamacare Fails, Again

The latest version of the Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare, known as the Affordable Care Act, appears to have failed even before making it to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Monday's hearing on the bill was interrupted by protesters chanting, "No cuts to Medicaid. Save our liberty."

GOP lawmakers had revised the Graham-Cassidy health care bill several times in an attempt to win over Republican holdouts, while its sponsors had defended the measure.
    
"My state had a 31 percent premium increase under Obamacare," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said on Sunday's Meet The Press.

"If we don't repeal and replace it's a disaster for South Carolina," he said.

With the Republicans' narrow 52 to 48 majority, it only took three GOP dropouts to kill the bill.

During a radio interview Monday, President Trump seemed cautious about the bill's success.

"We have 52 votes so we can't lose any votes. I mean practically. So we're going to lose 2 or 3 votes and that's the end of that," he said.

Two Republican senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona had already opposed the bill
    
"There are some things that are good in the bill. My concern still is that we have a $700B deficit and I think that this bill basically immortalizes the spending. The spending will go on and on and on and I don't think anyone is taking into account what that does to the deficit," Paul said.

Also Monday, the Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary review of the Republican bill, showing that it would save money over the next 10 years – $133 billion.

But people could "lose" insurance, although many of those could simply be choosing to drop out of the system, not actually "losing" insurance.

The CBO wasn't clear on exact estimates of how many people would be uninsured.

Shortly afterwards, another Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, came out against the bill. 

She told reporters, "It would have a negative impact on millions of Americans, who are now insured. It was that final piece of the puzzle that I had been waiting to confirm."

And Collins says the legislation would likely drive up insurance premiums for millions of people and weaken protections. 

We cannot give up on Obamacare repeal. We must keep working. We can get to yes.

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 25, 2017

After the announcement from Collins, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted: "We cannot give up on Obamacare repeal. We must keep working. We can get to yes." (EMBED TWEET)

But with three Republican senators standing against the bill, and unlikely to change, it's essentially dead on arrival.