And You Thought Republicans' Health Care Bill Couldn't Get Worse

Lie One: Democrats and progressives are unwilling to work with Republicans and conservatives on this issue.

McConnell unveiled the bill, which had been crafted behind closed doors, on Thursday and is aiming for a vote before the Senate recesses for the July 4 holiday break.

A healthcare bill has been introduced by the Senate Republicans that would revise numerous changes imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), cutting federal support for Medicaid and repealing the individual and employer mandates for having and providing insurance.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik). American Nurses Association President Pamela Cipriano holds up a list of essential health benefits as she discusses the effects of the proposed Republican healthcare legislation on families at a news conference.

President Donald Trump's long-promised repeal of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, edges closer to reality, as the Senate releases its secretly written version of the House's American Health Care Act-the very bill that Trump first championed, then recently reportedly called "mean". Expressing frustration, he complained about "the level of hostility" in government and wondered why both parties can't work together on the Senate bill as GOP critics expressed doubt over a successful vote this week.

And, he has nearly no margin for error. Facing unanimous Democratic opposition, McConnell can afford to lose just two of the 52 GOP senators and still prevail. Elizabeth Warren of MA called the tax cuts for the wealthy "blood money" - the bill's fate is out of their hands.

Johnson and fellow conservatives have said the plan advanced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't go far enough in repealing the law known as Obamacare and doesn't sufficiently lower health care costs. But the subsidy would be smaller and fewer people would be eligible.

ACA: States can expand Medicaid to cover people making up to 138% of poverty line, and federal government would pay a large part of the cost.

In addition, it calls for extra federal funding to be awarded to states for addiction and mental health treatment, services covered by Medicaid. "I can not support a piece of legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans", the Washington Post quotes Heller as saying.

Others, like Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada, Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia and Rob Portman of OH, have pointed to concerns about the proposal's cuts to Medicaid.

Trump says he believes his majority party is "going to get there".

Within 30 minutes of the 142-page bill being released, Schumer, who had accused Republicans of keeping the bill a secret as recently as the day before its release, hammered the legislation, calling it "meaner" than the legislation passed in the House of Representatives in May, the American Health Care Act.

ACA: Insurers could charge older people up to 3 times more than younger people. It would be politically hard for Heller to take a different stance on the measure from the popular Sandoval.

For all the objections and theatrics by Senate Democrats - Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Dean Heller says he "simply will not support" the bill, which he says is "not the answer". Collins said of Conway's comments. "This is not the best possible bill", said Sen.

Obama writes that he hopes that even many Republicans who fought for the ACA would see these concerns and would say no to the bill in its current form, "Thousands upon thousands of Americans, including Republicans, threw themselves into that collective effort, not for political reasons, but for intensely personal ones - a sick child, a parent lost to cancer, the memory of medical bills that threatened to derail their dreams". The Senate parliamentarian will make that decision. Trump's assertion few hours ago that he has helped pass and signed 38 Legislative Bills, mostly with no Democratic support, and gotten rid of massive amounts of regulations is of no use in case of Obamacare as long as the whole Republican Party stands behind him.