GOP Sen. Susan Collins: House Obamacare repeal bill won't be 'well received' in Senate

Source: Yahoo News



Yahoo News March 8, 2017
By Liz Goodwin

WASHINGTON — Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday that she believes the U.S. House of Representatives needs to “slow down” in its quest to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law and said the current bill unveiled this week would get a chilly reception in the Senate.

“I do not think it would be well received in the Senate,” Collins told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric of the current House bill, which President Trump has called “wonderful.”

Collins, a moderate Republican who has bucked Trump on a handful of his Cabinet nominations, said she is concerned by analyses that estimate 6 million to 10 million people would lose their coverage under the bill and that older people’s premiums would rise. She also thinks the bill breaks the “promise” Congress made to states that they would receive 90 percent of the funds to expand Medicaid. (The House bill phases out expanded Medicaid funding.)

Asked if she agreed with her colleague Sen. Rand Paul that the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate, Collins responded “yes.” But she stressed that the bill is a “work in progress” and may improve to the point where she could support it.




Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/katiecouric/841841-175147366.html