She worried about cuts to Medicaid benefits to the poor and disabled.
U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the late effort to revise the bill and add money for a few states, calling it “just as bad for those states and the rest of the states because it still contains a massive cut to Medicaid.”
Graham Vows to Keep Up Effort
A total of three Republican defections would kill off the latest effort to repeal Obamacare. Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have already registered their opposition.
As early as Monday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to produce a preliminary analysis of Graham-Cassidy that would assess the bill’s impact on budget deficits.
More time is likely needed for the CBO to gauge how the bill could affect Americans’ access to health insurance.
Despite the deepening skepticism, Graham pledged on Sunday to keep pushing for passage. During an interview on ABC, Graham said that if his bill was defeated, he would aim to use his seat on the Senate Budget Committee to keep the effort alive.
An aide to Graham said in an email that the senator was suggesting an extension of the Sept. 30 deadline. That could create complications for tax overhaul legislation that Trump also is pushing.
Independent analyses indicate Graham-Cassidy would fundamentally redistribute federal healthcare money, generally with Republican-leaning states benefiting and Democratic-leaning states losing.
State-by-state impacts from Graham-Cassidy would vary, but some of the states whose senators are undecided would stand to lose funding, the Axios news website reported on Friday, citing a study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees Medicaid and the Obamacare program.
The CMS study found that by 2026, Alaska would lose 38% of its federal funding for insurance subsidies and Medicaid. Both of Alaska’s Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, are still on the fence over Graham-Cassidy.
The insurance industry, hospitals, medical advocacy groups such as the American Medical Association, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society, the AARP advocacy group for the elderly and consumer activists oppose the bill.