In a first vote of the many likely to come this week, the plan to repeal and replace Obamacare that Senate Republicans have been working on for months failed to get the 60 votes needed for approval on Tuesday night. The vote was 43 in favor and 57 against.
Nine Republicans, ranging from moderates such as Susan Collins of Maine to conservatives such as Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, which would have made deep cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance programme for the poor, and reduced Obamacare subsidies to lower-income people to help them defray the cost of health insurance.
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Earlier U.S. Senate Republicans narrowly agreed to open debate on the bill to end Obamacare, but the party’s seven-year effort to roll back Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature Healthcare law still faces significant hurdles.
Republicans have found it difficult to fulfill their campaign promises to repeal Obamacare, which enabled 20 million more Americans to get health insurance. Polls show Obamacare is now far more popular than the Republican alternatives.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the Senate’s replacement bill could lead to as many as 22 million fewer Americans being insured.
