SEATTLE, Wash. — The Republican bill and signature campaign promise of President Donald Trump that would repeal and replace Obamacare was pulled on Friday.
House Speaker Paul Ryan guaranteed a win on the Republican plan to dismantle Barack Obama's health care law. Instead, he suffered a brutal defeat, cancelling a vote and admitting "we're going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future."
The American Health Care Act would have repealed and replaced some of the Affordable Care Act, which is also known as Obamacare. It would also have left millions of people without the health care they gained under the ACA.
The two Republican Congress members from Western Washington played key roles in the defeat. District Congressman Dave Reichert remained refused to lend his support. 3rd District Congresswoman Jaime Herrera-Beutler said she would vote "no."
Herrera Beutler was a 'no' on health care bill
Early Thursday—the seventh anniversary of the day President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law—Beutler said it didn't do enough to protect children on Medicaid.
In a statement, she said she still wants to get rid of the current health care law, but "we can do better than the current House replacement plan." She said any replacement option should provide affordable, high-quality health care.
I remain steadfast in my commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare with health care solutions that better serve all...
Posted by Jaime Herrera Beutler on Thursday, March 23, 2017
Dave Reichert was undecided
The political numbers may be part of the reason. Reichert easily won reelection last November, but his district voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton on the Presidential part of the ballot.
Congressman Reichert released a statement shortly after the vote was canceled.
"My focus has always been to work together with all Members of Congress to create a patient-centered, high-quality health care system that offers more choices at an affordable price. Congress could not come to a consensus that the legislation debated on the floor of the U.S. House achieved those goals."
Reichert did not say whether he would have voted for the plan had it come to a vote. Watch Ryan talk about the pulled bill below.
What other local lawmakers and leaders said about AHCA
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has slammed the GOP replacement plan, which officials said would cost the state $1.5 billion to keep coverage for about 600,000 residents who gained insurance through the Medicaid expansion that was a key part of Obama's health care law.
The latest version of the AHCA bill was under attack for allowing insurance companies to eliminate benefits that many people expect in their insurance plans.
Under Obamacare, insurance companies currently have to provide 10 essential benefits. The original Republican plan didn't repeal them, so conservatives were withholding their votes.
The essential benefits include pregnancy and newborn care, pediatric care, mental health and substance abuse care, preventive care and prescription drugs.
Trump agreed to cut them in his quest to attract more conservative members of the House. His spokesman defended ending the requirement.
"It's this potpourri of mandated benefits that everyone has to have. We've lost consumer choice and so people are paying for benefits that neither they their spouse their family needs which is driving up cost for everybody," Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.
But those who fought to preserve the ACA saw the essential benefits as vital.
"You could just say to people, 'You don't have to provide women's health care,'” said Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell in an interview with KIRO 7.
"They can't show up with their physician and then have him say then we don't cover appendectomies or we don't cover this. You want to make sure your insurance covers the basic essentials," she said.
Cantwell answered those who would ask why a man should pay for insurance that includes maternity care.
“I'm sure that man had a mother and I'm sure that mother may have needed that maternity care. Very few people go to the hospital and pay the full cost of maternity care without coverage of insurance.”
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