Since Tuesday, the Senate has voted down two different Republican healthcare bills. One was the Senate’s ACA replacement, the BCRA; the other was a “repeal and delay” bill. The New York Times has a breakdown of who voted for what. But there’s more to come.
Expect a vote soon on a “skinny repeal” that only strikes down a few provisions of Obamacare, like the requirement that everyone buy health insurance. This may have been intended as a last-minute surprise bill to be passed without a CBO score, but Senate Democrats sent their best guess of a draft to the CBO anyway, and we now have the numbers: it would cause 16 million people to lose insurance, and individual market premiums to go up by 20 percent.
There may well be more surprises between now and the final vote (expected today or tomorrow). Democrats say they are prepared to offer hundreds of amendments to try to delay a vote; meanwhile, Majority leader Mitch McConnell surely has more tricks up his sleeve. To keep up on the latest happenings, follow our favorite health policy people on twitter.
