Health Care Reform: Senate Leader Defers Votes; To Wait Until McCain Recovers From Recent Surgery
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced over the weekend that they will postpone this week's vote on the "Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017" until Sen. John McCain of Arizona recovers from his recent surgery.
This week, the Senate Republicans were supposed to open the debates and subsequently vote in favor of passing the revised Better Care Reconciliation Act. However, on Saturday, McConnell's office issued a statement announcing the deferment of the voting process.
Out of the 52 Republican senators, the GOP will need at least 50 votes in favor of the bill to pass it. The Better Care Reconciliation Act is a revised proposal that was unveiled just last week.
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Upon the announcement of the revised bill, two Republican senators - Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky - immediately manifested their contentions to the bill. With that, McCain's vote is extremely needed for the Republicans to push the piece of legislation to the Senate.
However, even McCain is not absolutely certain to support the bill. In a statement his office released shortly after the Better Care Reconciliation Act was revealed last week, the senator said: "The revised Senate health care bill released today does not include the measures I have been advocating for on behalf of the people of Arizona."
McCain added that once the bill is up for deliberation, he plans to file amendments. He mentioned that there remains "concerns raised" by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and other state leaders on how the provisions of the Better Care Reconciliation Act will affect Arizona's Medicaid system. Meanwhile, McCain maintained that he still stands that the "Congress must replace Obamacare."
During the weekend, the office of McCain and Mayo Clinic confirmed that the lawmaker underwent a surgery "to remove a blood clot from above his left eye" that was discovered during the senator's annual routine physical check up. The procedure was done on Friday in a Phoenix-based hospital of Mayo Clinic.
While the medical operation was successful, McCain's doctors are still waiting for the tissue pathology reports "within the next several days."
