Latest partial repeal effort dies before deadline

Another Senate attempt to repeal portions of the Affordable Care Act has ended, this time before going to a vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced a GOP-led health care bill would not go to a vote after three Republican senators said the bill did not have their support. In July, a similar partial-repeal effort died when Sens. John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against it.

The latest bill, spearheaded primarily by Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La. and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,  would have taken funding that is used under current law for Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies and used it to fund block grants to states. A preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office said the bill would have reduced the deficit by $133 billion by 2026 as well as resulted in millions more uninsured people compared to the current health care law.

McCain and Collins, along with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., publicly voiced their opposition to the Graham-Cassidy bill.

Proponents of the bill only had a few weeks to gain enough support before a temporary process that allows health care legislation to pass in the Senate with 50 votes rather than the usual 60 ends on Sept. 30. Graham called it the GOP's "best and only chance" to meet its goal of repealing Obamacare.

However, that might not be true. After it became clear that the Graham-Cassidy bill was going to fail, President Donald Trump told reporters to expect new health care legislation to repeal portions of the Affordable Care Act in early 2018.

Until we see new movement on his promise to repeal Obamacare, we'll continue to rate this Stalled.